Renewable Energy

GE Vernova shares preliminary analysis of Vineyard Wind turbine failure

July 24, 2024

Preliminary investigation indicates manufacturing deviation, insufficient bonding.

Related To: GE Vernova

A piece of Vineyard Wind's GE Vernova Haliade-X turbine blade washed up on Nantucket's south shore.

GE Vernova says that it has shared the preliminary analysis and environmental assessment related to the July 13 event at the Vineyard Wind farm with relevant federal, state and local authorities.

A turbine in the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm suffered a blade failure on July 13, leaving debris in the water and washing up on Nantucket Island, offshore Massachusetts.

According to a GE Vernova spokesperson, the company’s preliminary investigation of the event indicates that the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation – in this case, insufficient bonding – that the quality assurance program should have identified.

The spokesperson said: “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 out at sea.”

The spokesperson added: “Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working with urgency to scrutinize our blade manufacturing and quality assurance program across offshore wind. We have work to do, but we are confident in our ability to implement corrective actions and move forward.”

Fellow Endeavor Business Media brand, EnergyTech, also covered this news in their detailed report: Damaged Turbine Blade Fully Detaches at Vineyard Wind: Emergency Crews Responding to Clean Up Fiberglass Debris from Ocean and Coastline | EnergyTech.

About the Author

Bruce Beaubouef | Managing Editor

Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.