Updated July 31
Several more sections of the deteriorating Vineyard Wind turbine blade fell into the ocean on Monday afternoon.
According to a Monday evening news release from Nantucket, the town’s officials were told by GE Vernova, the company responsible for manufacturing and installing Vineyard Wind’s turbines, that the blade pieces “detached from the hub” of the turbine.
“Some large pieces entered the water column, while smaller pieces floated on the surface. Additional debris landed on the turbine platform,” the Monday note from the town reads. Town officials further noted that some of the debris has sunk to the ocean floor.
“Small pieces of foam debris were released from these sections and observed floating on the water,” a later town update on Tuesday afternoon reads. “The debris primarily consists of small, popcorn-sized pieces of foam, with some larger pieces and limited fiberglass fragments possibly mixed in.”
More debris, mostly small in size, are expected to reach Nantucket beaches between Wednesday, July 31, and Thursday, August 1.
Company representatives had told town officials the detachment was “not unexpected,” although it has been several days since any debris detachment was last observed. A recent “rotor movement exercise” had previously resulted in a “one-meter piece” of debris falling off, according to a separate Monday update from the town.
The U.S. Coast Guard has maintained a 500-meter safety zone around the turbine and GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind have dispatched crews to “secure as much debris as possible for immediate containment and removal,”
GE Vernova and Resolve Marine, the marine salvaging company hired for the operation, are still developing a plan to remove the remaining portions of the blade in a “[safe] and controlled” manner.
The announcement does not state how large these pieces were. Vineyard Wind spokesperson Craig Gilvarg did not specify how large the bigger debris pieces were and reiterated the information stated in the Nantucket updates.
The U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center also issued an advisory to mariners on Tuesday morning at 7:48 am that there were reports of “potential floating debris” in the vicinity of the damaged wind turbine around 20 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The notice also said the pieces may be “scattered in multiple debris fields and varying in size.”
“Mariners are advised of multiple recovery vessels in the vicinity of wind turbine generator ‘AW-38’ and the use extreme caution when transiting the area,” the notice reads.
This blade issue, is unacceptable, how come this blade was not removed? what is the clean up process when a blade fractures? once again the weather is mild right now, what happens when we get wind? We all know hurricane season is around the corner. this has been a terrible experiment from the get go, made a recent trip out there, whales are avoiding the area, because it is a major city in their migratory route, it is such a shame, environmentalists turn their cheek on this, this belongs on land or not at all.
Where do oil drilling and production platforms belong?
Do whales avoid them?
Agree with everything that you said Suzie
Suzie, you say the issue is unacceptable, as if the manufacturer created the problem on purpose. The manufacturer worked quickly to identify the problem. Give them a little credit.
Windmills are not an experiment.
Windmills can handle hurricane weather.
One turbine in China, during a typhoon on Sept 1st, generated 384 megawatt hours of electricity in 24 hours. A record for a single turbine in one day.
What evidence do you have that whales 🐋 are avoiding the area? Why haven’t you complained about the loss of lobsters 🦞 due to warming of ocean water?
I can remember when Lynn MA General Electric was designing nuclear powereed heating systems for the home. Seriously. Of course, it never made it but truly, Micro nuclear power plants in development would be a much better answer if we could ever do it.
Frank, what happens to marine animals if they are exposed to radiation from a nuclear accident. Would they receive burns? Would they die from cancer? What evidence do you have that nuclear is safer than windmills or solar panels?
Why did GE abandon the project?
Cost?
Safety?
I just wish everyone would stop & give the “bad” company a chance to mitigate the problem. I will say this may turn out to be another bad idea, but we will never know if the howling never stops.
Fiberglass….Boats…..Oh no.
Convert the towers to drill rigs.
Comments are closed.