The manufacturer of the damaged blade on the Vineyard Wind farm, GE Vernova, has revealed the findings of a preliminary investigation and claims that the problem was faulty manufacturing, not a design flaw.
The turbine suffered blade damage on July 13. No one was hurt but the island beaches were strewn with fibreglass shards and green and white foam – over six truckloads of it. More debris was found in the water later on as the state of the blade was deteriorating.
This prompted the closing of a total of six Nantucket beaches while crews worked to clean up large floating debris and fibreglass shards from the broken wind turbine blade. The federal government also ordered the wind farm to shut down until further notice due to the turbine blade failure.
According to GE Vernova’s preliminary analysis, the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation in the form of insufficient bonding that, the company claimed, the quality assurance program “should have identified”.
“There is no indication of an engineering design flaw in the blade or information connecting this blade event to the blade event we experienced at an offshore wind project in the UK, which was caused by an installation error at sea,” the US-based firm stated.
The investigation is still ongoing GE Vernova claimed that it was “working with urgency” to scrutinise its offshore wind blade manufacturing and quality assurance program.
Following the incident, GE Vernova hired Arcadis US to perform an initial assessment of environmental considerations associated with the presence of blade debris in the water and along the shoreline.
They concluded that the current primary potential risk is to people who may come in contact with the blade debris, such as shards of fibreglass, which can lead to injury. The blade materials and debris in their final product state are inert, non-soluble, stable, and nontoxic and therefore do not require any specific environmental management.
GE Vernova is also coordinating with maritime response and recovery specialist Resolve Marine to detach the remaining segment of the affected blade from the main turbine. This initiative will be done in coordination with Vineyard Wind, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement as well as state and local officials.
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