Blade failure at Vineyard Wind project costs manufacturer $700 million, more blade problems found

GE Vernova, the company that manufactured the blade that broke off a wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket and littered the shoreline with shards of potentially dangerous fragments is taking a financial hit over the incident.

In its third quarter earnings call, according to RTO Insider, the company stated its onshore wind business saw its best quarter since 2021, but the problems with its offshore business had taken the wind out of the good news. The July 13 blade failure and subsequent delays will cost the company an estimated $700 million. 

GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said the company cut offshore jobs in the third quarter, and it wouldn’t be taking new orders until there’s a substantial change in the financials of the offshore wind industry. In the meantime, GE Vernova will focus on satisfying a $3 billion offshore wind backlog.

The company said it’s removing “some blades” from Vineyard Wind following an analysis of 8,300 ultrasound images per blade, the Nantucket Current reports, as well as physical inspections with “crawler” drones.

The company didn’t provide any specific numbers on how many blades would be removed or what that analysis found, but if it’s removing more blades, it’s likely the company found more problems. GE Veranova will also be “strengthening” other blades, but no further details on the number of methods were provided.

GE Vernova has long stated that the problem was the result of a “manufacturing deviation” at a Canadian facility. The number of blades found with the deviation, Strazik said, was in the “low single-digit proportion” of the total amount the company makes.

"In those cases, we're taking action on those blades, and we're doing that right now, and really now getting to a point of shifting back to execution out at sea,” Strazik said.

In a statement, GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind said they’re taking steps to remove the seabed debris and the root of the blade that remained after the larger portion broke off. The seabed debris removal will be completed this week, but removal of the root will take weeks.

While Strazik sounded optimistic the company was nearing moving forward, the statement claimed that they were granted approval Monday to resume installing new blades on turbines at the project “once stringent safety and operational conditions are met."

In a statement sent to the Current, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Vineyard Wind is still prohibited from producing power, installing blades or conducting any activity on the turbine where the incident occurred.

On a case-by-case basis, the BSEE added, some specific activities will be allowed after “sufficient risk analysis has been performed and mitigation measures are adopted.”

In the Wednesday earnings call, Strazik said that it had “finalized root cause analysis,” which confirmed the problem was caused by a manufacturing deviation at the Canadian factory. The BSEE said that the suspension order requires Vineyard Wind to conduct a root cause analysis and supply copies to the agency.

Just the News reached out to GE Vernova to get clarification on if this analysis was complete and the agency had not received it. The company didn’t respond. Vineyard Wind reiterated language in the joint statement that the approval was contingent on stringent safety and operational conditions being met.

While the companies have not been granted the approvals to proceed or given any assurances the conditions will be met, the companies’ announcement had offshore wind opponents concerned that the project is moving forward.

In a letter to the editor of the Current, members of ACK for Whales, said they’re “shocked and truly disturbed” that Vineyard Wind is claiming it will soon resume construction.

“The permitting for this project has been recklessly approved from the very beginning, and the project has already exhibited an enormous failure that does not appear to have been thoroughly addressed. A blade explosion, from which we are still seeing the damage, was not even considered in Vineyard Wind’s Construction and Operations Plan,” the ACK for Whales members wrote.

When and if the company does proceed with the project, it could be some time before it wins back the trust of the Nantucket community. A nonprofit organization had co-signed an agreement binding the town and other signatories to commit their support to the Vineyard Wind project in exchange for $16 million to mitigate impacts of the turbines. The nonprofit announced Wednesday it is pulling out of the agreement.