GE Cited ‘Manufacturing Defect’ for Nantucket Wind Turbine Failure

A preliminary investigation by GE has found that the Vineyard Wind turbine blade that broke off, falling into the ocean and littering nearby beaches, was caused by a “manufacturing defect.”

The outage occurred on July 13, and the damaged turbine continues to send floating debris and sharp glass fibers onto Nantucket’s south shore, angering residents.

The turbine, manufactured by GE Vernova, is part of the Vineyard Wind project, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

In a statement Wednesday, GE Vernova said the investigation found the affected blade had a manufacturing deviation, specifically “insufficient bonding” that the quality assurance program should have identified.

“There is no indication of a technical design flaw in the blade,” the company said in a statement.

“Our investigation is ongoing and we are working urgently to thoroughly review our blade manufacturing and quality assurance program in offshore wind,” GE Vernova continued.

The outage occurred at the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, which began generating power from five of a planned 63 turbines in February. The farm is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

Due to the blade failure, the Office of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has since ordered Vineyard Wind to shut down power generation until it can determine whether other turbines might be affected.

In a financial results conference call Wednesday morning, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said the company is still conducting a “root cause analysis” of the blade failure. The company is re-inspecting all 150 offshore wind turbine blades made at its Gaspé, Canada, plant.

Strazik said the company conducts a “careful and thorough process” and uses “non-destructive” testing methods similar to ultrasound and radiation to identify discrepancies.

GE Vernonva also said there was no connection to the blade failure the company experienced at an offshore wind project in the UK. An installation error at sea caused the failure.

Strazik declined to provide a timeline for the Vineyard turbine cleanup process during the earnings call.

“We have work to do and we are confident we can do it,” he said.

On Tuesday, the Nantucket board met behind closed doors to discuss “potential litigation” over recovery costs associated with the blade failure.

An update is expected Wednesday evening at the regular board meeting.

New environmental assessment report

Vineyard Wind and GE representatives will also discuss the new environmental assessment report on the incident. GE Vernova funded the report, which was conducted by Arcadis US, a global engineering and environmental consulting firm.

The report says the main risk posed by the wind turbine blade is physical injury to those who come into contact with debris, such as sharp fibreglass, on public beaches.

The report says the blade materials are “inert, non-soluble, stable and non-toxic” and similar to textiles used in boat building and the aircraft industry.

Additionally, the report found that no PFAS were used in the materials used to make the blade itself, nor in the foam, fiberglass, wood, or coating. However, several small aerodynamic accessories attached to the blade contain PTFE, commonly known as Teflon, which is part of a broad set of chemicals classified as PFAS and approved by the FDA.

The report does not contain details on the amount of debris recovered or how this will affect human health and ecological risk assessment activities.