A second GE Vernova wind turbine blade has failed at the Dogger Bank A wind farm off the northeast coast of England, according to Reuters and several online reports.
According to the reports, Dogger Bank wind farm officials said they were “aware of a blade failure which occurred” on Thursday morning on an installed Haliade-X 13MW turbine at the North Sea wind farm, which is still under construction.
GE Vernova said no injuries were reported and that it was investigating the blade failure, without giving details, according to the Reuters report.
The failure follows another wind turbine blade failure in May at the Dogger Bank A wind farm; and comes closely on the heels of still another turbine blade failure at the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts in July.
According to a previous statement from GE Vernova, the earlier turbine blade failure at the Dogger Bank wind farm in May was the result of an installation failure.
According to a GE Vernova spokesperson, the company’s preliminary investigation of the Vineyard Wind turbine blade failure indicated that the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation – an insufficient bonding that the quality assurance program should have identified.
“The question going forward will be whether this is a one-time installation issue or a manufacturing fault of the Haliade-X blades, similar to last month’s failure at the Vineyard Wind project. The latter could have much more long-term implications,” said Raymond James analyst Graham Price, as quoted in the Reuters report.
GE Vernova became an independent company in April following a three-way split of General Electric.
