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Posts Tagged ‘blade failure’

Is Nantucket’s agreement with Vineyard Wind really a step forward?

Posted in accidents, energy policy, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged , , , , , on December 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

7/13/2024 Vineyard Wind turbine blade failure offshore Nantucket

The attached Memorandum of Understanding between Vineyard Wind (VW) and the Town of Nantucket is long on bureaucratic procedures and short on risk mitigation and penalties.

The agreement details requirements for monthly reports, liaisons, written correspondence, plan reviews, and participation on incident management teams, but excludes any monetary penalties for past or future incidents. (With regard to penalties, should BSEE have assessed civil penalties for the 2024 turbine incident in accordance with 30 CFR § 285.400 (f)? This was a major pollution event.)

This MOU provision gives the impression that the Town is subordinate to VW:

“The Town will provide Vineyard Wind 1 up to 4 business days, if required, to identify and correct errors in the Town’s intended public communications about the Project.”

The responsible party should not be exercising oversight over the communications of an affected local government. Can you imagine Santa Barbara County reaching such an agreement with Sable Offshore?

Finally, the MOU further establishes the Town as a de facto partner in the project. VW, not the Town, is the responsible party and must be held fully accountable for project performance.

Memorandum of Understanding between Vineyard Wind 1, LLC and Town and County of Nantucket (PDF)Download

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New Bedford Light: “Seventeen months on, Vineyard Wind blade break investigation isn’t done”

Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged , , , , , , on December 4, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Vineyard Wind turbine blade that was damaged on July 13, 2024, captured by a New Bedford commercial fisherman. Photo courtesy of Anthony Seiger

Excellent New Bedford Light piece on the unacceptable delay in completing the blade failure investigation report.

The Town of Nantucket’s attorney, Greg Werkheiser of Cultural Heritage Partners, told The Light last month that “it’s taken far too long” to get a final report on the blade failure. 

It’s noteworthy that there have also been unacceptable delays in issuing panel reports for serious offshore oil and gas incidents:

ncident datereport dateelapsed time (months)incident type
5/15/202110/31/202329.5fatality
1/24/20217/24/202330fatality
8/23/20202/15/202330fatality
7/25/20202/15/202331spill

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Judge Lamberth’s bench ruling on Revolution Wind is likely to stand

Posted in decommissioning, energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , , on September 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

A long-time colleague is very familiar with Judge Lamberth, a Reagan appointee, and thinks highly of him. Orsted has a lease contract, and no matter where you stand on offshore wind, you have to have a compelling case to halt a project that is in the advanced stages of development. Judge Lamberth ruled that the govt doesn’t have such a case. Per the judge:

  • The govt presented insufficient evidence to support alleged permit noncompliance and national security concerns.
  • The govt acted in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner.
  • “If Revolution Wind cannot meet benchmark deadlines, the entire project could collapse.”
  • “There is no doubt in my mind of irreparable harm to the plaintiffs.”

Projects under development will be difficult to pause or stop. The Administration should focus on requiring sufficient decommissioning financial assurance, monitoring and mitigating project impacts, making incident data publicly available, issuing the report on the Vineyard Wind blade failure (finally!), and improving the availability of dispatchable power (i.e. natural gas and nuclear).

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Sunday (7/13) marks the one year anniversary of the Vineyard Wind turbine blade failure

Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Why has the BSEE investigation report still not been issued?

Construction on the Vineyard Wind project continues yet important questions about quality control, regulatory departures, debris recovery, and environmental impacts remain.

Given the investigation’s significance, not only for Vineyard Wind, but for other offshore wind projects planned or under construction, how is the delay in issuing the report acceptable?

Keep in mind that the lengthy and complex National Commission, BOEMRE, Chief Counsel, and NAE reports on the Macondo blowout were published 6 to to 17 months after the well was shut-in.

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Pictures of Vineyard Wind repair work

Posted in accidents, energy policy, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , on April 10, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Below are interesting pictures of Vineyard Wind’s repair and installation activity taken today by Nantucket pilot Doug Lindley. He commented that only of the turbines was spinning.

Note the lightning damage to the turbine with the failed blade. The lightning protection system was not operational on that turbine.

Also note the vessel transporting replacement blades.

It’s a bit difficult to rationalize all of this, but the Administration of Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey sees these projects as being critical to the Commonwealth’s energy future.

In December 2023, the Governor ordered a transition away from natural gas and set a goal of making Massachusetts carbon-neutral by 2050. As a candidate for governor in October 2022, then-Attorney General Maura Healey bragged, “Remember, I stopped two gas pipelines from coming into this state.“ This in a State where half of the households are heated with natural gas.

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BSEE: Lightning protection system was not operational on Vineyard Wind turbine

Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , , on March 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

BSEE statement:

BSEE’s report on the initial (7/13/2024) blade failure has still not been released.

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“Groundhog Day” on Nantucket?

Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, tagged , , , , on March 5, 2025| 1 Comment »

The same Vineyard Wind turbine blade that failed last summer has now been struck by lightning:

“Lightning struck the fractured stub of Vineyard Wind’s broken turbine blade in the early morning hours on Friday (2/27), according to representatives from Vineyard Wind and the Coast Guard. It was the remnants of the broken blade that snapped this July that were still attached to the turbine.”

“It appears the town (Nantucket) was not informed of the lightning strike by Vineyard Wind until it received media inquiries about it, over 48 hours after it happened.”

More on the Vineyard Wind saga.

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Not a good look for the wind industry

Posted in accidents, UK, Wind Energy, tagged , , , , on January 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Shetland News: Parts of a Viking turbine blade which broke in October remain on the hills around the wind farm site – almost three months later.

Too many of these incidents are occurring, and this one is particularly troubling:

Shetland News received a number of photos from the site, with the person who sent them – who wished to remain anonymous – saying there was “truly a monumental mess of fibreglass and plastic blowing through the hills.”

They said “some of the debris was as far as 700m away from the turbine.”

Shouldn’t the operators have contingency plans (ala oil spill response plans) that provide for prompt and complete cleanup after turbine system failures?

“Debris can still be seen strewn around, some distance from the turbines.”

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Interesting timing – Vineyard Wind suspension order lifted

Posted in accidents, Offshore Wind, Regulation, tagged , , , , on January 18, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The suspension order for the Vineyard Wind project was lifted on the last business day before the change in Administration and before the completion of the Federal investigation into the blade failure.

New Bedford Light report

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