GE Vernova, Vineyard Wind are removing blades as inspection drags on

The work to get the Vineyard Wind project going again after a blade fell apart in July continues to drag on, with blade manufacturer GE Vernova and the wind farm developers issuing statements on Wednesday saying blades are now being removed from the project site south of Martha’s Vineyard as part of the safety inspection process.

Cambridge-based GE Vernova said it is removing “some blades from the Vineyard Wind farm while strengthening other blades as needed to support the safety and operational readiness of this project.”

Scott Strazik, GE Vernova’s chief executive, offered a few more details about the status of Vineyard Wind and another offshore project in the United Kingdom to investors and analysts on an earnings call on Wednesday.

“We have finalized [the] root cause analysis and confirmed the blade issue at Vineyard Wind was caused by a manufacturing deviation from our factory in Canada,” Strazik said on the call. “We have been very intentional, thorough, not rushed, in reevaluating our blade quality across offshore wind in totality. As we reaccelerate progress on our projects, we are proactively strengthening some of the blades, either back at the factory or in the field to improve quality and readiness for their intended useful life.”

The developers behind Vineyard Wind — Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners — have been building the $4 billion project in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard to provide electricity for as many as 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts.

When complete, the project’s 62 skyscraper-sized turbines will generate 800 megawatts of electricity. It would be the first of a series of wind farms Massachusetts officials hope to launch off the New England coastline, with financing from long-term contracts between the developers and the state’s three major electric utilities.

Progress on Vineyard Wind was halted in July when one of the blades fell apart, sending fiberglass debris into the ocean and eventually onto nearby beaches. All construction and operations were halted as a result. GE Vernova found that a manufacturing issue — insufficient bonding — was to blame for the roughly 100-meter-long blade coming apart.

In August, the developers began installing foundations and nacelles again but not blades. The manufacturer also embarked on an exhaustive reinspection of all its blades made for offshore wind farms.

GE Vernova also hired Resolve Marine to help clear debris from the project area. The company said it expects to complete the removal of debris from the seabed this week, while removing the root of the blade from the rotor hub is expected to occur in the coming weeks.

At the time of the incident, 24 of the turbine towers had been installed and about a dozen were delivering power to the region’s electricity grid until the blade failure prompted the blades to be shut off. Eight new towers and supporting equipment have since been installed.

It remains unclear when electricity generation or blade installation will resume at the wind farm. The companies said they will continue to make progress on “safety and operational conditions” to satisfy federal regulators before resuming generation and blade installation.