Vineyard Wind officials announced Wednesday that an unspecified number of turbine blades will be removed from its lease area 15 miles south of the Island, raising further questions about the integrity of the blades.
GE Vernova, the contractors charged with the construction of the Vineyard Wind farm, through a press release and during a call with investors Wednesday, did not specify how many blades have been or will be removed, although they said that fewer than 10 were impacted.
“There was a manufacturing deviation at one of our factories in Canada,” GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said during a quarterly call with investors on Wednesday. “We have been very systematically reviewing all of our blades in offshore wind, and we can say today that a very small proportion, low single-digit proportion, of our manufactured blades in totality also had a manufacturing deviation similar to the blade that we experienced the failure in Vineyard Wind.”
The latest press announcement follows recent reporting from the New Bedford Light that four blades were quietly shipped from New Bedford to a manufacturing plant in France.
The response from Nantucket officials to the latest update is both concern and reassurance — concern that there could be further issues with the blades, but also reassurances that the federal government is providing oversight of the project.
Wednesday’s announcement follows an incident in July when a blade fractured while reportedly undergoing testing, spewing debris onto the ocean before washing ashore on Nantucket beaches and, to a much lesser extent, the Vineyard’s. Officials with the contractors say that the operation to remove a significant piece of the broken blade that fell to the ocean floor began in mid-October, and is expected to wrap up by the end of the month.
Since July, Vernova said in a statement Wednesday that they have undertaken “extensive quality checks — including the re-examination of more than 8,300 ultrasound images per blade, and physical blade inspections with ‘crawler drones.’”
Also in a statement from Vineyard Wind on Wednesday, and also addressed during Vernova’s earning’s call, officials say they are confident that they will soon restart constructing new blades at the site, which federal officials have suspended since the July blade failure.
Vernova has been installing both towers and the nacelles, and could begin reinstalling blades “once stringent safety and operational conditions are met,” reads a statement from Vineyard Wind.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) issued a statement on Tuesday noting that it has updated its suspension order over Vineyard Wind, although the statement did not specify what that entailed.
BSEE’s investigation remains ongoing, and a spokesperson said that specific activities might be allowed on a case-by-case basis, after sufficient risk analysis has been “performed and mitigation measures are adopted.”
“The Suspension Order continues to require Vineyard Wind 1 to conduct a root-cause analysis to determine the cause of the blade failures, and provide a copy of the root-cause analysis to BSEE as soon as available,” the statement reads. “There is no timetable for the completion of the investigation, as BSEE focuses on ensuring that the investigation is thorough and complete.”
On Nantucket, town officials released a public statement relaying their concerns and appreciation for the federal government.
“It is concerning because it confirms that the GE Haliade X blades are not yet reliable for safe use in offshore wind farms, and because the blades now offshore of Nantucket are not free from risk of inflicting future harms to the Island,” a statement attributed to the town’s select board chair Brooke Mohr states. “The announcement is reassuring in that it affirms that the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement is doing its job on behalf of the American people by ensuring that the Vineyard Wind Project not be restarted unless and until all sufficient precautions are taken to ensure that there is no repeat of the July 13 blade failure.”
Also during Wednesday’s earnings call, Vernova officials noted that their global company is still making gains in reducing carbon emissions.
“In 2023, we added 29 gigawatts of new capacity to the grid globally, with 42 percent in developing markets,” Strazik said. “The carbon intensity of this capacity is approximately 25 percent below the global average carbon intensity of the existing global power sector, and has the potential to avoid 20 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
“I share these examples to reinforce our true north in both adding capacity to the grid each year while driving toward a more sustainable electricity system,” he said.
Gee! What a surprise!! I’d have never thought this was possible…and Wind and Solar are SOO Safe and Good for the earth and for all us humankind and animals. How much of our government tax money has gone into their pockets?
Trillions of our tax dollars are being distributed to foreign investor developers, State Governors and local officials to support this Green New Deal! Nothing is green or clean about Off Shore Wind. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of fossil fuels are used to develop, transport, install and run these turbines.
Do you have the amounts, dates and payees for the trillions of tax dollars.
Some forms of energy generation is greener than others.
Have you seen oil production, refining, distribution and consumption up close?
No green to be seen.
All energy use has some ugliness to it
Susan, here is one building technique
that can make homes more energy
efficient:
https://www.thermalstuds.com/
Breaking the bond in the wall also reduces sound transmission, creating a quieter home environment.
Isabella, more tax money 💰 has gone to
oil than will ever go to wind.
https://www.budget.senate.gov/chairman/newsroom/press/sen-whitehouse-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-we-are-subsidizing-the-danger-#:~:text=It's%20not%20just%20the%20US,to%20the%20fossil%20fuel%20industry.
The Federal Government should insist that the Vineyard Wind Developers be completely transparent with any and all issues with regard with the defective blades at the OSW site. We should not have to learn about these manufacturing defects from the New Bedford Newspaper. Can Vineyard Wind confirm that the blades that are installed have been tested to withstand a New England Hurricane? Did Vineyard Wind perform a wind study on 350 foot blades or did they cut 50 feet off the blade for the experiment? It feels like we are guinea pigs in this giant experiment.
Was it a manufacturing defect or a design flaw?
How many GE blades of this size are in operation?
How many have failed?
The blade failure was not wind related.
It failed in light winds.
It was not in operation.
GE has had lots of turbine blade failures, jet engine turbine blades.
Should all GE jet engines be taken out of service?
Chinas has much bigger blades.
I have not heard of any failures.
Is US technology just no damn good?
Susan, we should insist that all new buildings be south facing and passive solar. It doesn’t cost any more to design correctly.
Renewable wind is an expensive, inefficient, intermittent form of energy. Dangerous to birds and marine life. Noisy sound pollution and visual pollution. *NOT durable due to manufacturing defects, **Design flaws, ***High velocity storms leading to high cost clean ups and water contamination. #Hazardous to navigation. Higher demand for electric vehicles and AI will create higher electric prices for residential, commercial and industry. ##Wind and solar are not viable to expand to manage this increased demand. ###Government Funding=Green Energy expenditures are costing US TAXPAYERS Billions $$$$ for unprofitable corporations that will lead to more lost TAXPAYER DOLLARS. Unfortunately Biden’s administration has stalled investment in oil and natural gas. In addition, the administration has delayed construction of pipelines and LNG export facilities. These issues will lead to higher inflation for everything. Oil and gas are proven efficient and RELIABLE energy sources for over 150 years. Nuclear is the best quality GREEN ENERGY that the US must promote for our future growth.
Solar and wind has been around for over 50 years and produces just 5% of the worlds energy needs. Neither forms of energy are clean, green or efficient. The NEW Nuclear technology is tested, green, clean, inexpensive and a reliable source of energy.
Susan, nuclear has many problems. Causes cancer. Vulnerable to attack. Vulnerable to extreme weather. NO, it is not safe.
Solar on every roof is infinitely safer and more robust.
Fossil fuels are a finite source of energy.
We are consuming it 100,000 times faster than it is produced.
Wind is produce everyday.
“Nuclear is the best quality GREEN ENERGY”
How many deaths?
Wind?
Potential for nuclear?
How many New England Nuclear plants have been shut down?
Why?
What will be the final cost per megawatt be?
We won’t know for a hundred years.
Roy, no matter how many times you say wind and solar energy is expensive and not reliable, doesn’t make it true. When you continue to repeat other people’s lies about energy, it makes me wonder about your motives.
Solar on every roof is very inexpensive and reliable. Please stop 🛑 repeating lies.
Roy, the US government hands out about
20 billion per year to the oil industry,
even though the oil industry took in
record profits of 4 Trillion per year!
Could it be that the oil industry is
lying to You about renewable energy?
According to the EPA, the United States produced approximately 6,343 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2022, which represents the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions that year.
Quote from the article… ““The carbon intensity of this capacity is approximately 25 percent below the global average carbon intensity of the existing global power sector and has the potential to avoid 20 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year.”
So if we divide 20 million into 6,343 million tons we arrive at a potentia. So we arrive at a potential of 0.315308214% percent reduction. Obviously, it is not sufficient. But it is not exactly even that much because there is a lag time as all of the construction, miing, shipping and so on need to be accounted for. It is some years before the complete reduction is accounted for.
The science of replacing fossil fuels with solar and wind does work, obviously, but the issue is the enormity of the problem. In order to reduce Co2 what science does tell us is that we need to reduce the World’s Gross Product. In other words, we need to stop development and reduce it to halt Co2. This did occur during the economic slowdown from Covid.
Offshore wind, solar power, and all green energy do work, but our ice will still melt, our seas will still rise, and we will have all of the problems associated with our industrial society until we can halt growth or find sufficient replacement to equal or surpass the total needed.
There are presently no viable solutions available and we are instead as a planet at war with each other. Co2 for war-related damage is never calculated. Another problem.
Nuclear power would work. At least it would be better.
Frank– you are absolutely correct. Very few people realize the scale of the
problem. it has to be dealt with by every means possible. Nuclear
would indeed work for a significant portion , but that also takes time to
ramp up and get on line. And that really has to be safe. We apparently
can’t build whirligig’s that can stay together. What makes anyone
think we can build thousands of nuclear reactors and not have problems.
If a blade falls off a windmill, that’s one thing, but if a nuke melts
down—-
The real problem is that regardless of what source
our power comes from, we just use more. We need to reduce.
Say that word to a conservative, and they will be offended and
ingnant that the liberals are trying to control them, and take away
their god given right to destroy Her creation.
Don, you and I agree that reducing energy consumption is a good idea.
We also need solar on every roof.
If every family and business created their own electricity, there would be a surplus of electricity. Solar panels are so cheap it’s embarrassing that everyone doesn’t have them.
Why have so many New England nuclear power plants been shut down.
No longer economical to operate?
Sorry Frank, nuclear is NOT better. Solar on every roof is the main solution.
Say the word “renewable” to a liberal, and they’re hooked.
Thank God that oil is not renewable.
Conservatives would not use it.
No fuel cost surcharge.
Thank God oil is not renewable.
Conservatives would not use it.
The are hooked on consumption.
And air pollution.
And water.
EPA……
Albert, I’m hooked on water. I use it every day. The time for building a desalination plant on MV is now.
It seems to be all going well so far.
No deaths for wind.
Eight this month for oil.
Not like the good old days.
Oil extraction has gotten much safer.
Susan, Everyone, Please read this recent article about an EV disaster.
https://open.substack.com/pub/blackmon/p/another-week-another-ev-battery-catastrophe?r=sm7wf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Anecdotal.
Like oil rig fires.
No form of energy is risk free.
sorry–Roy– we can all find a few anecdotal stories–
I find it interesting that all 9 of the busses in this article you
posted spontaneously combusted at the same minute.
A woman was killed by a malfunctioning Ottoman bed last week.
Ottoman beds– BAD —
Here are the facts about ev fires vs ICE fires.
https://electrek.co/2022/01/12/government-data-shows-gasoline-vehicles-are-significantly-more-prone-to-fires-than-evs/
Roy, here is a facility that processes old batteries
Battery technology is constantly improving.
https://investors.li-cycle.com/news/news-details/2022/Li-Cycle-Opens-Lithium-Ion-Battery-Recycling-Facility-in-Arizona/default.aspx
In the article it states, “…four blades were quietly shipped…” which infers that the shipper was doing something improper.
The manufacturers of the blades are working to correct the manufacturing issues. Let’s not create an adversarial relationship where there shouldn’t be one.
Working together to save our Earth 🌎 is a worthy goal.
Comments are closed.