Updated July 29
Some activity has resumed on the Vineyard Wind offshore wind development, officials with the project revealed during a tense select board meeting in Nantucket on Wednesday, July 24.
Several residents claimed that despite the federal government shutting operations down at the lease area — in the aftermath of a fractured blade spilling its contents into the ocean — contractors were still laying cables.
Vineyard Wind representative Richard Smith said that federal officials had approved some activities on the site, although he did not clarify what these activities included. Construction of the turbine blades is not ongoing, according to the representative.
BSEE shut the operation early last week following news of the fractured blade.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement stated in a press release following the meeting that although power generation and most construction was still suspended for Vineyard Wind, the offshore wind developers can still install undersea cables and conduct surveys outside of the damaged turbine’s safety zone.
“BSEE prioritizes offshore worker safety and environmental protection, and we will use all tools available to ensure compliance with safety and environmental regulations on the Outer Continental Shelf,” Kevin Sligh, BSEE director, said in a statement.
The continuation of work on the site was just the latest issue revealed at Wednesday’s select board meeting. Project representatives said that they are also working on a plan to remove a piece of the blade that has sunk to the ocean floor, and they are working to ensure that the rest of the blade can come down from the turbine safely.
Nantucket officials, frustrated by the response from Vineyard Wind and with debris from the blade floating on their shoreline, indicated that they will seek restitution and are looking to renegotiate a multi-million dollar agreement with the company.
They also chastised Vineyard Wind for not communicating more clearly and in a timely manner.
And although a few more details are coming together on how the blade fractured, Nantucket residents were left wanting more answers. Some residents called for the project to be shut down entirely.
At Wednesday’s select board meeting, Renjith Viripullan, executive fleet engineering director at GE Vernova, said that they are still investigating what went wrong with the blade. He said they are in step four of eight in their “root cause analysis.” He said that GE still has testing at their laboratories, verifying information, and taking “corrective action.”
“The blade is still there,” Martella said on Wednesday evening. He showed a recent photo of a segment of the blade dangling from an upright portion still connected to the rotor. “We are as motivated to have the blade removed at the earliest opportunity as anyone else is.”
He said a plan is being developed with the global maritime response and recovery firm Resolve Marine to remove the broken blade. Resolve was a part of working on the aftermath of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore that collapsed in March.
As a part of the plan, Martella said they moved the blade remotely to test for more loose debris and to avoid safety issues for workers.
“I want to reinforce our goal here is to move with urgency, but safety has to trump everything,” he said.
Martella also gave a brief explanation for what may have led to the fracture in the blade, reiterating statements made during a call with investors on Wednesday. GE has explained that there was a “manufacturing deviation” in a Canadian factory that was not spotted during inspection. Martella expanded on the explanation somewhat, saying that the issue was specifically with an adhesive.
He added that All 150 blades built in the Gaspé, Canada factory are being re-inspected, including those already installed.
“We’re going to focus on being rigorous and being thorough versus necessarily doing it fast,” he said. “That’s our top priority, to address the question of the root cause here and how … we do everything to make sure that we don’t see this repeat itself again.”
Meanwhile, Smith said a piece of turbine debris that sunk into the ocean is being tracked by sonar and said he expects it can be recovered, although how that will be done was not discussed.
Nantucket officials and residents pushed for further investigation into the potential environmental impacts from the broken blade, including testing water quality and the potential harm to marine animals.
“This is not asbestos, but it is harmful to human beings and potentially harmful to animals and wildlife,” select board member Malcolm MacNab said. He argued there was too much of a focus on whether the fiberglass was toxic or not, noting that there are other concerns surrounding the substance.
Jim Nuss, a consultant from Arcadia, said water testing is something that is planned. As for potential harm to marine life, he said this will need to be analyzed further and will depend on the degradation of the debris. Additionally, he said the risks associated with people ingesting seafood harvested from Nantucket waters had not been considered yet, but they would look into the issue in the future.
“Our community doesn’t consider that a future risk, they consider that an immediate risk,” board chair Brooke Mohlr said
The town’s select board is also pushing for financial reimbursement from Vineyard Wind.
Mohlr read from a statement stemming from an executive session the town officials held on Tuesday, July 23.
“The Town of Nantucket select board is alarmed by the blade failure at Vineyard Wind 1,” Mohlr read. “We are deeply concerned about the safety, environmental, and economic impacts of this catastrophe on our local residents and visitors to the Island. The select board is committed to holding Vineyard Wind and GE, the manufacturer of the turbine blades, accountable. We demand 100 percent transparency from both Vineyard Wind and GE about exactly what occurred during the blade failure and exactly what chemicals and materials are in the debris that has washed up on our beaches and remains in the water column in Nantucket. Vineyard Wind must implement comprehensive measures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future and it is imperative that full restitution is provided for the damage caused.”
Mohlr said town representatives will meet with the offshore wind developers next week to discuss reimbursements to the Nantucket community and for damages sustained from the incident and recovery efforts.
The chair also demanded “answers and better coordination” from federal and local officials involved with the case and who oversee offshore wind development operations.
“The emergency has also revealed the inadequacy of Vineyard Wind’s coordination and communication required by the Good Neighbor Agreement,” Mohlr said, referring to an agreement between the town and Vineyard Wind meant to foster their mutual interests against climate change. The agreement was signed by the town and Vineyard Wind in 2020. Through the document, Nantucket agrees to support the project and receive a $16 million payout.
“Although the town has done our part to honor our obligations, we intend to renegotiate the terms of the agreement in light of this accident,” Mohlr said.
Multiple Nantucket residents called for the town to exit the agreement and for the Vineyard Wind project to be shut down.
Some called for federal officials to come to Nantucket to answer residents’ questions.
While getting grilled with questions from residents and town officials, representatives from Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova stated that they would need to circle back to provide answers.
Updated with additional information from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
Beaches shut down harming the tourist economy. High potential risk to the fishing industry. Government shut down of VW last week. Tribe appropriately call for moratorium. Recently “Wind turbines are being dismantled to make way for a massive coal mine expansion in Germany, and Canada’s largest bank RBC is helping pay for it using “sustainable” finance.” Many Germans are turning against wind power due to its disruptive issues to the economy, land, water, marine and birds. Germany has a massive supply of coal to be mined to supply a reliable and cheaper energy source at home to be energy sufficient. Currently the US is energy self sufficient. Please read this recent article in the National Review titled “Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been enthusiastic about the kind of wind-power project that just failed catastrophically in the Northeast.”
The fishing industry uses fiberglass boats.
There are hundreds of sunk fiberglass boats in our waters.
No energy comes without disruption.
Jet engine turbine blades fail, catastrophically, death resulting.
Oil and coal production – land, water, marine and birds….
Ron, the National Review is a magazine founded by William F Buckley, Jr.
He inherited his OIL money, which he had a lot of, from his father from the oil fields in Mexico. Near Texas.
The conservatives in the United States have been working for about 70 years to control communications in the US. Radio, print, internet.
Vote against the oil barons!
Wow Nantucket got 16 million payout from Vineyard wind in 2020, what for? a pay off to industrialize our ocean and turn their cheek, how much has Martha’s Vineyard received in hand outs and why and to who? this whole thing stinks like rotten fish, we need to dismantle this global experiment in our ocean by global elites, who is holding the money to dismantle this catastrophe, the bond Vineyard Wind is supposed to put up front for dismantling, who will clean up the mess they leave behind, the tax payers, this whole thing is disgusting, please stop this corruption and end Vineyard Wind. I can’t believe they’re still laying electrical cables, while they have not cleaned up all the toxic fiberglass, where are the environmental regulators? Oh maybe they got a hand out too like WHOI.
How much did Somerset get for the coal plant, more than 16 million, a year.
Who is holding the money to dismantle Somerset?
Plymouth Nuclear?
Great questions Susie. Follow the money. Give residents an explanation about the $16 million.who got it? What did the spend it on? Let’s do a forensic audit!
Yes, Roy, let’s follow the money.
The oil barons are earning $5 to $10k per year from every family in the US, on average. They are doing everything they can to block electric cars and solar panels. And windmills. The oil companies are fomenting discontent with renewable energy. Half a trillion dollars in profits, every year, won’t be given up easily.
Just wondering if any boats around, I mean yachts, are funded by oil money?
You are not going to get full transparency at all. And to state that having fiberglass and microplastics in the waters, on the beaches and in the seafood is not toxic, is disgraceful. Why don’t you ask them to eat a bunch of fiberglass and rub it on their skin and eyes and ask them how they like it….that is, if they live to talk about it. That is what is going to happen to the Marine life and ultimately humans.
There was another blade failure incident just 2 months ago in the UK. Even if rare, one is too much. How about the people that depend on the summer season (3 months a year) for their livelihood. The gentlemen that had a surf school with 25 employees. These people DEPEND on having a clean safe beach and ocean for their income during the summer. There better bee steep compensation from Vineyard Wind!
Boats are made of fiberglass, Corvettes too.
Sherri, why is no one outspoken about the disgraceful smoke pouring from oil refineries?
Is fiberglass toxic? There must be millions of tons of fiberglass insulation installed in homes 🏡 all across the US.
It easily blows into the water.
Sunk boats grind on the bottom.
Hope the manufacturer figures out how to solve the blade problem soon. We need more renewable energy going online to compete with the Chinese. At least 30% of the cars 🚗 in China are already fully electric.
We have a long road ahead of us!
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