The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is requiring Vineyard Wind to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the damaged turbine that was recently struck by lightning.
A bureau spokesperson told The Times the agency is overseeing the response to the lightning strike that hit a Vineyard Wind turbine last week.
“Vineyard Wind 1 has conducted aerial surveys, and is performing an onsite evaluation. The company is expected to share its findings to BSEE,” the statement reads in part. “As part of its oversight responsibilities, BSEE is requiring a comprehensive assessment of the affected turbine and its associated equipment to determine the full extent of any damage.”
Similar to Vineyard Wind officials, the bureau spokesperson stated that debris has not been found around the turbine as a result of the incident. The spokesperson said the damaged turbine’s lightning protection system was not operational after the blade fractured in July. Other Vineyard Wind turbines have the protection active.
It is unclear why the root of the broken blade is still attached to the turbine months after it sustained damage. GE Vernova, the contractor building the Vineyard Wind project, had previously announced in October plans to remove some turbine blades.
GE Vernova has said that it plans to remove and replace the damaged blade in May. Representatives of GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind were not immediately available for comment.
The agency was notified about the lightning strike on Sunday, March 2, days after the incident occurred. The bureau states the incident occurred on Friday, Feb. 28, although the Coast Guard previously told The Times the lightning strike was on Thursday, Feb. 27. Neither organization immediately had an answer to the discrepancy.
With federal funding frozen for the most part, who is looking into this and taking care of it?
So , it’s up to VW1 to assess the damage and report back to BSEE, VW1 also reports no debris from this latest event and BSEE backed this up based on what VW1 told them?
VW1 to this point hasn’t been too forthcoming, transparent ,or too honest with much information throughout many stages of this project, why would that change with this particular incident?
BSEE should be the ones conducting the comprehensive assessment, not just overseeing it and reporting back what VW1’s findings are, that’s a little biased in my opinion!
Jason– you do realize of course, that the BSEE is a federal agency that is filled with corruption, fraud ,waste and inefficiencies — Right ? And to make it all worse, the BSEE is tasked with trying to make things safer, and enforcing environmental laws. To put it bluntly — they are nutcase liberal regulators– Right ? But let me ask , with no offense intended– Why do you now put your faith in a Biden era regulatory agency that has no clue as to what reality is, and not depend on the findings of industry experts ?
Don – Yes , I would much rather put my trust and faith into a government agency over the VW1 “industry experts”.
Would you rely on information from the Fox as to how the farmers chickens got killed?
What is your opinion of wind generated electricity versus hydrocarbon?
What is you opinion of the amount of “oil” and other and other crap throne into Island waters by fishing boats versus wind?
Are more than a little biased against wind?
Because wind jobs pay so much better than fishing, not to mention so much safer.
This all looks and sounds fishy to me.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and Vineyard Wind are not transparent or honest about their business relationship or their actions taken and to be reported on this damaged turbine and if/when the project will resume. Federal permitting and funding for wind energy have been paused for the foreseeable future. Wind energy companies are facing many environmental problems, high costs and bankruptcy. Wind power is finished.
Traditional sources of energy such as oil, gas, coal and nuclear are reliable, cost effective and plentiful. Traditional energy will promote growth of AI, national security, create US jobs, improve quality of life for all Americans.
Wind energy companies in the US are facing many political problems, high costs and bankruptcy.
Wind power in the US, and the world, will continue to expand (see trend line).
US production of nuclear energy continues to fall.
There are no US nuclear power plants under construction.
nuclear are reliable…
Albert,
Where is the graph showing this trend line?
Common knowledge for people knowledgeable about wind power.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/wind-generation
For everyone else there is Google.
The EV and wind power trend lines are quite similar.
Will Trump/Musk/Vance take away the the EV tax credit?
Make EVs pay a $.01 per mile road use tax?
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