By Jason Graziadei, Nantucket Current
By When Vineyard Wind completed the installation of the first GE Vernova Haliade-X 13-megawatt wind turbine in the waters southwest of Nantucket in October 2023, the company trumpeted it as “the largest turbine in the western world.” It was supposed to be one of the 62 turbines that would make up the first large-scale, commercial offshore wind farm in the United States.
But just nine months later, the project has been suspended by the federal government after the now infamous turbine blade failure on July 13th that left Nantucket’s beaches and the waters surrounding the island littered with fiberglass and Styrofoam debris that is still being recovered.
While offshore wind energy production has a decades-long track record in Europe and Asia, the Vineyard Wind project was the first of its kind in the United States, and the turbines Vineyard Wind is installing are larger and more powerful than any that have come before it.
The technology may not be new, but the size and scale of the Haliade-X turbine is novel for the offshore wind industry. And these jumbo-sized turbines have only recently been installed in just two locations in the world within the last year – at Vineyard Wind off Nantucket, and the Dogger Bank Wind Farm off the northeast coast of England. The Haliade-X turbine blades – which are supposed to have at least a 25-year lifespan – have suffered failures in both locations.
At Vineyard Wind, the turbine blade failure is being blamed on a “manufacturing deviation” that occurred at the LM Wind Power factory in Gaspé, Canada, one of two locations where the Haliade-X blades are manufactured. LM Wind Power was acquired by GE Vernova for $1.65 billion in 2017.
“Our investigation to date indicates that the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation,” GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said during the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call with investors earlier this month, specifically citing “insufficient bonding” applied at the factory. “We have not identified information indicating an engineering design flaw in the blade or information of a connection with the blade event we experienced at an offshore wind project in the UK, which was caused by an installation error out at sea.”
Strazik also disclosed that GE Vernova will reinspect all 150 blades manufactured at the LM Wind plant in Canada by reviewing the radiography testing records, including those that have already been installed on 24 turbines at the Vineyard Wind lease area.
But Strazik’s disclosure on the investor call about the LM Wind Power plant in Canada means that both of the company’s factories capable of manufacturing blades for the Haliade-X wind turbines have run into trouble. At the other factory, located in Cherbourg, France, an “operational incident” in April 2024 reduced production capacity and resulted in damage to one of the molds used to produce components for the Haliade-X.
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