A lot was riding on this wind farm. Then giant shards washed up in Nantucket

Industry was dealt setback after a turbine blade broke at one of the nation’s largest planned offshore wind farms

This summer was supposed to be a breakout season for the faltering offshore wind business in the U.S. Instead it may be defined by an ill-timed break. 

A large project off the coast of Massachusetts, called Vineyard Wind, remains at a standstill following an accident that dropped a massive turbine blade into the ocean last month and washed chunks of debris onto Nantucket beaches.

The blade broke at the height of summer and at a pivotal moment for the U.S. offshore wind industry, which has struggled with rising costs, political opposition and a wave of canceled and renegotiated contracts. Efforts to launch the sector in the U.S. are considered key to President Biden’s climate aspirations but would be especially vulnerable if former President Donald Trump returns to office.

Of the many clean-energy incentives and policies approved by Congress or the Biden administration in recent years, offshore wind projects and electric vehicles have been singled out repeatedly by Trump with particular ire.

“We are going to make sure that ends on day one,” Trump said at a campaign event in May, talking about an offshore wind project in New Jersey. “I will write it out in an executive order.”

The project offshore Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard is among the largest planned wind farms in U.S. waters, with the capacity to deliver electricity to around 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts. It was the first U.S. commercial offshore wind installation to start delivering grid power earlier this year and has more than a third of its turbines in place.

As chunks of debris washed ashore in Nantucket in mid-July, beaches closed for a day. The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement halted construction of additional turbines along with power generation from the installed turbines. The agency said it had launched its own investigation into the incident. More debris later washed up on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod beaches.

Turbine maker GE Vernova has blamed “insufficient bonding,” or glue, as the reason for the break. It said it was a manufacturing problem and there is no underlying design flaw that would affect other installed blades. The blade had been recently installed and the turbine was undergoing reliability tests.

The company hired an engineering firm to look at potential environmental impacts.

“We are working with urgency to scrutinize our operations across offshore wind,” Chief Executive Scott Strazik told analysts during a July 24 earnings call. “Pace matters here, but we are going to be thorough instead of rushed.”

Offshore wind turbines are massive. The broken blade was around 351 feet long, taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Manufacturing giant turbine blades is both a high-tech and hands-on process. GE Vernova takes ultrasound images of each blade it makes, a few centimeters at a time, and now is combing through images of around 150 offshore blades.

A check of those images should have caught the problem with the blade at Vineyard Wind, but didn’t, Strazik said. GE Vernova this week said it also plans inspections of installed blades with remote-operated robots.

A GE Vernova blade at an offshore project in the U.K. was damaged in May, though the company said that was because of an installation mistake and not a manufacturing problem. Onshore in the U.S., project owner American Electric Power has sued GE Vernova, alleging problems with turbines at three wind installations in Oklahoma.

This is the first blade failure at a U.S. offshore wind farm.

While the accident involved one blade and doesn’t appear to signal a widespread problem, “it’s not helpful for GE both in terms of getting new orders in the future and generally given the backlash that offshore wind is getting in the U.S.,” said Deepa Venkateswaran, an analyst at Bernstein.

Nantucket resident Jeanne Fones said she has long had concerns about offshore wind, including its impact on wildlife and what would happen to unprofitable projects if they are abandoned.

“We’re not even started and the debris is coming in,” Fones said. “Now we’re dealing with fiberglass in the water and on the beaches.”

Timothy Fox, managing director at Washington, D.C.-based ClearView Energy Partners, said the accident could galvanize opposition to offshore wind. If Trump wins in November, “his administration could likely point to this incident as cause to halt project reviews and lease sales,” Fox said.

Vineyard Wind is one of four major projects under construction along the East Coast, a landmark for an industry trying to enter the U.S. energy mix after years of delays. Around 40 new vessels are on order or under construction—part of a massive new domestic supply chain—to help install and maintain the industry’s skyscraper-sized machines.

But offshore wind energy projects require a bevy of permits, studies and approvals from federal agencies, which presidential administrations can decide to fast track or delay. 

Biden has targeted 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity in the U.S. by 2030, a goal analysts expect the country will miss, while Trump has long complained about wind energy and fought a protracted legal battle starting more than a decade ago over an offshore wind farm in sight of his Scottish golf resort.

Gaven Norton, owner of ACK Surf School on Nantucket, was among those collecting 4- and 5-foot chunks of the turbine before the beaches were closed. “It’s probably the worst possible time that this could happen,” said Norton, who has around 25 employees to help with lessons and camps from mid-June through mid-September.

While surfers have been able to return to the water, Norton can’t yet gauge the financial impact on his business.

Turbine manufacturers have delivered ever-larger and more advanced machines, which are more efficient at making electricity but have struggled to become profitable. The Covid-19 pandemic caused global supply chain disruptions and inflation sent the cost of building materials soaring. Last year some manufacturers said they were running into problems with wear and tear.

Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, the developers of Vineyard Wind, have had crews looking for pieces of the blade. Some pieces have sunk to the ocean floor and must be retrieved.

“The presence of debris both at sea and on land has decreased significantly,” said Craig Gilvarg, spokesman for the project. “Vineyard Wind continues to monitor for debris by land, sea and air every day and is ready to respond to any reports of debris, even though most of the recent sightings have turned out to be unrelated trash.”