Bad streak for GE Vernova as another blade fails at Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in UK

One of the already installed wind turbine blades at Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm, currently under construction in the UK, has sustained damage and failed.

The blade failure occurred on the morning of 22 August and, according to an update from the Dogger Bank Wind Farm consortium, no one was injured or in the vicinity when the damage was sustained. The developer said the surrounding marine area was restricted and relevant authorities were notified.

The consortium also said it was working closely with the turbine manufacturer, GE Vernova, which initiated an investigation into the cause of the incident.

Dogger Bank A is currently in the wind turbine installation stage. In July, 20 turbines were fully installed at the project site and several more were in place but only with towers and nacelles installed.

The installation of blades at Dogger Bank was affected by the blade failure on a GE Vernova wind turbine in the US last month and the subsequent investigation and quality control work.

As reported on 25 July, the breakage of the blade on one of GE Vernova’s Haliade-X wind turbines at the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm in the US was caused by a manufacturing deviation, according to the preliminary investigation.

The wind turbine OEM has launched a quality check of all offshore wind blades made at its factory in Gaspé, Canada, where the blade that was installed at Vineyard Wind 1 and broke off was produced.

In the meantime, work on the US offshore wind farm had been stopped by the government which later removed some of the restrictions, allowing for the installation of nacelles and towers to resume, meaning the same wind turbine installation work is currently being carried out on both Dogger Bank A and across the pond on Vineyard Wind 1.

Two months before the blade incident at Vineyard Wind 1, there was another blade event at Dogger Bank A.

At the beginning of May, a blade on an installed turbine at the Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm also sustained damage, after which GE Vernova launched an investigation into the cause of the incident. The company’s initial findings were that the circumstances surrounding the incident were isolated to the single blade affected and that the damage was due to an installation error.

Dogger Bank A will comprise the 95 GE Haliade-X 13 MW wind turbines and is the first of the three 1.2 GW phases of what is set to become the world’s biggest offshore wind farm once completed.

The Dogger Bank Wind Farm project is owned by the consortium of SSE Renewables, Equinor and Vårgrønn.

The entire 3.6 GW mDogger Bank Wind Farm project is scheduled to be completed in 2026.