News this past week of a Vineyard Wind turbine blade fracturing and scattering debris all the way to Nantucket’s shores is more than just minor turbulence in the burgeoning and nascent offshore wind industry. We would all agree that alternative energy, particularly wind, is needed for our nation to pursue a greener future before it’s too late. So all the more reason for Vineyard Wind to be held accountable for its failings here.
More locally, “the crisis” — as Nantucket officials have called it — presents a new concern for Island leaders and the stewards of our oceans trying to maintain a safe environment.
As we’ve reported, there has been little explanation from Vineyard Wind officials of what actually happened. Do the developers of the project know, and aren’t saying? Or, equally troubling but harder to believe, perhaps they literally do not know what happened. Yesterday morning, Vineyard Wind officials put out a press release saying the cause of the fracture was likely attributed to the manufacturing stages rather than the design. However, there are still a lot of outstanding questions that need answers.
So far, federal investigators have rightfully shut down Vineyard Wind operations while they further investigate the reasons why the blade fractured. We applaud that response.
Here’s what we do know: A significant chunk of the 350-foot blade fractured on the evening of Saturday, July 13, splintering into debris and plunging down into the water, some of it sinking to the bottom. A large section of the blade fell, and reportedly sank to the ocean floor, where, Vineyard Wind officials say, it will eventually be retrieved. Eventually? What are they waiting for? We think these kinds of questions deserve better answers from a business that has received generous support and investment from the community, and which is profiting from the use of our precious waterways, which has compromised our fertile fishing grounds and disrupted our majestic views out to the open ocean.
As for the debris inside the blade, Vineyard Wind says it is a mix of foam and fiberglass of varying sizes, and that it all started washing ashore on Nantucket early last week. The town was forced to close down several of its south-facing beaches for a day, which is a serious blow to the island’s economy at the height of summer.
As of last week, Vineyard Wind officials estimated that 17 cubic yards of debris was collected, or more than six truckloads full. And debris has still been arriving on the small island.
There were also reports of debris floating off the Cape, and — while we have not received confirmation from Vineyard Wind — possibly on the Vineyard.
First and foremost, production of wind energy is a significant part of the equation to slow the impacts of climate change, the most challenging and gravest threat to our humble earth. And it’s worth noting that if this were a major oil rig, we’d have a much bigger problem on our hands than fiberglass. Officials with private and public agencies are still exploring what the environmental impacts are from the scattered debris, but state officials say they expect the impacts to be minor. And there’s been no report of injury from the incident.
It is also important to note that these fractures, at least in global offshore wind production, seem rare. CNN reported that 20,000 turbines were ordered by developers last year, and the number of fractures is minimal in comparison.
But the impacts to Nantucket cannot be ignored, and they present a worry for the Vineyard. When Nantucket had to shut down one of its beaches, locals lost business, including a surf school that missed out on a day of lessons. Significant town resources went to cleaning up the debris. Will one day of closed beaches destroy Nantucket? No. But the scary thought here is that we are just six months into Vineyard Wind first generating power to the grid, and there are many more wind plants planned for waters off the Northeast, some even closer to Martha’s Vineyard. It’s hard not to fear that this could happen again, and with greater impacts to our Island.
Adding to our concern is an additional fear voiced by the leader of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), which is the impact to marine life from this debris, a fragile marine ecosystem that is already struggling with the impacts of climate change. The Wampanoag worry about the impacts to shellfish, a main food source, and to the whales and fish that might ingest the debris. Chairwoman Chryrl Andrews Maltais is calling for a moratorium on construction of offshore wind until we get assurances that this doesn’t happen again. It is an understandably strenuous response.
In last week’s paper — not by coincidence — we ran a cover story adjacent to our coverage of the broken blade, that scientists in Woods Hole are exploring a way to mitigate the impacts of climate change by dumping lye in the ocean a dozen miles from Edgartown. The experiment has merit, partly because of our failure as a society to curb carbon emissions. But it’s hard not to feel — with the threat of a dozen cubic yards of foam and fiberglass floating nearby — that we are part of some grave, abstract experiment.
We are providing Vineyard Wind space to set up its operations on our coastline. Some Islanders can already see the turbines on the horizon from their homes, or from beaches and boats. Now we are learning that there are environmental issues. Vineyard Wind has also made promises of jobs for Islanders as well as funding, and we remain skeptical that those grand promises are actually being fulfilled.
What we need from Vineyard Wind are assurances that this won’t happen again. What we do not need is a posture of arrogance in which their highly paid professional project managers feel like they will answer this community’s legitimate questions when they can get around to it, or when it suits their interests. Vineyard Wind owes this community more than it is giving us. And Vineyard Wind and the wider circle of developers should all know that this community will not allow itself to be left twisting in the wind while they pursue a windfall of profit.
Was this written by the PR firm for Vineyard Wind ?
Someone has been smoking way to many happy sticks
to think that the explosion of offshore wind farms is a noble pursuit by big corporations to somehow change the climate and reduce carbon emissions.
Most Islanders were sold the idea that offshore wind was going to lower our electricity bills. What goods or services do you know of are going down in price in this current inflationary reality ?
If this madness is never going to pay off to the public and electric rate payers then why are these windmills being built ?
Offshore wind is an environmental disaster in the making and is a corporate shakedown of the taxpayers to the tune of billions of dollars. Don’t even mention the whales that are dying or the collapse of marine life that these wind farms are responsible for. That discussion should have been had before any wind farm leases were issued.
Tim Greer is absolutely correct. The Vineyard Wind offshore wind installations are not only impacting our ocean and its shoreline, but they are also impacting our island residential neighborhoods as the company searches for housing for their imported employees. The ZBA has a hearing scheduled for August 8th in regard to allowing 97 Spring Street to become a 9 bedroom, 9-1/2 bath employee housing dwelling. Tisbury law limits single family occupancy to 5 unrelated people. Why should the developer and Vineyard Wind be allowed to break the law and impact neighbors with a rooming house type of dwelling?
How many many wind turbine blades are there world wide?
How many have failed?
Higher percentage than nuclear plants?
If you want to power civilization with fewer greenhouse gas emissions, then you should focus on shifting power generation, heat and transport to natural gas, the economically recoverable reserves of which — thanks to horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — are much more abundant than we dreamed they ever could be. It is also the lowest-emitting of the fossil fuels, so the emissions intensity of our wealth creation can actually fall while our wealth continues to increase. And let’s put some of that burgeoning wealth in nuclear, fission and fusion, so that it can take over from gas in the second half of this century. That is an engineerable, clean future. Everything else is a political displacement activity, one that is actually counterproductive as a climate policy and, worst of all, shamefully robs the poor to make the taxpayer-subsidized crony rich even richer.
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