'Significant part' of Vineyard Wind turbine blade drops into Atlantic

The multi-day clean energy project failure south of the islands is worsening, with developers at Vineyard Wind reporting Thursday that a "significant part" of a huge, damaged and dangling wind blade has detached and dropped into the Atlantic Ocean.

"This morning, a significant part of the remaining GE Vernova blade detached from the turbine," Vineyard Wind said in a statement released at 11:20 a.m. "Maritime crews were onsite overnight preparing to respond to this development, though current weather conditions create a difficult working environment. Despite these challenging weather conditions, a fleet of vessels remains at sea managing the situation and working to remove bulk debris. We have deployed additional crews to Nantucket Island in anticipation that more debris could wash ashore tonight and tomorrow as we continue to monitor additional coastal communities."

Project officials announced the potential for the blade to detach during a Nantucket Select Board meeting on Wednesday night where outraged islanders expressed alarm at the infrastructure waste that's washing ashore and concerns about the future of wind projects.

In its Thursday statement, Vineyard Wind said it was "staying apprised of GE Vernova’s efforts to manage the situation, including the removal and recovery of the remaining blade attached to the turbine. With public officials, we will continue to keep the islands informed of developments as we work closely with state, federal, local, and tribal partners to respond to this evolving situation, with the safety of our personnel, the public, and the environment as our highest priority."

A mysterious incident damaged one blade on a turbine undergoing testing over the weekend, scattering debris that later washed up in the form of large and small fiberglass and foam pieces on Nantucket's southern beaches more than 15 miles away.

The 107-meter blade sustained damage about 20 meters out from where it connects to the rest of the turbine. Although the incident flung blade pieces into the water, it did not fully sever the blade, and most of the blade spent several days hanging parallel to the tower.

Vineyard Wind said Wednesday it was notifying federal, state, local and tribal authorities, including the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which previously ordered work at the turbines to be suspended.

Vineyard Wind and GE have not yet announced what caused the problem. At a Nantucket Select Board meeting Wednesday, Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller described an alarm that tripped Saturday night.

"One of the blades on one of the positions was broken and folded over, bended over, and was not pointing in [the] direction that it should," he said. "The way the system acts, it's an automatic system, so the system actually shuts it down. And that's what happened here."

Moeller and other Vineyard Wind and GE representatives spent several hours before the Select Board, answering some questions and hearing criticism from a frustrated, worried crowd.

Just before 8 p.m., Moeller suddenly announced he needed to leave to deal with a new problem affecting the "rest of the blade."

Residents and other interested parties who attended the meeting expressed outrage about the incident, its impact on the island and potential consequences for marine life.

While environmental groups have said they have not observed any harm on marine life, attendees told Nantucket's Select Board they're worried about lasting impacts from small plastic particles that might have fallen off the damaged blade.

Galen Gardner, a retired teacher, said Vineyard Wind and blade manufacturer GE "contributed gobbledegook science and corporate-speak to address the situation."

"We are here tonight in a packed house to express our anger and dismay over the rape of our oceans, our peace, our prosperity, our beloved marine life," Gardner said.

Vineyard Wind has 10 operational turbines that, before being shut down, were delivering about 136 megawatts of power to the regional grid. Project leaders eventually plan to scale up to 62 turbines providing 806 megawatts.

The company did not publicly reveal the Saturday incident until Monday, and similarly did not disclose that it shut down power production on Saturday night until Wednesday — one day after federal safety officials said work at the project is "shut down until further notice."

Offshore wind and the development of clean energy infrastructure is a key part of Massachusetts' climate goals. In early July, two additional offshore wind farm projects south of Vineyard Wind won federal approval to begin construction.

At an unrelated climate event in the western part of the state, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey was asked by WBUR about how the incident might affect the future of offshore wind. He said "there need to be proper safeguards in place whenever an accident does occur, but it should not interfere with the longer term goal of breaking Massachusetts’ dependence upon natural gas and fossil fuels to generate our electricity."
"The wind off of our coastline is in credible of force for good," added Markey. "It will absolutely minimize environmental degradation of the mainland of the state of Massachusetts."

With reporting from State House News Service's Michael P. Norton and Chris Lisinski and WBUR's Barbara Moran.