Damaged Wind Turbine Blade Sinks Off Massachusetts Coast
7:23 minutes
This article is part of The State of Science, a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. This story, by Eve Zuckoff, Patrick Flanary, and Gilda Geist, was originally published by WCAI.
This is a developing situation — CAI will continue coverage. Scroll down for additional background, and check their page for updates.
Catch up quick:
- On Saturday, July 13, a Vineyard Wind turbine blade suffered significant damage 15 miles southwest of Nantucket
- Since then, thousands of pieces of fiberglass shards and green and white foam have washed up on south coast Nantucket beaches
- The debris has forced swimming closures and affected local businesses, as concerns persist about environmental and economic impacts
- The event caused federal officials from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement to issue a suspension order for Vineyard Wind, until the cause of the damage could be determined
- Nantucket town officials told the Nantucket Current that they first learned about the damage at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. The fact that the blade was damaged but news did not come out immediately has created anger among Nantucket residents, particularly boaters
- During a Nantucket Select Board meeting on Wednesday night, town officials and locals expressed outrage to representatives for Vineyard Wind and General Electric, the builder and installer of the blade, over the impacts on the environment and local businesses
- Early Thursday morning, Vineyard Wind informed the town of Nantucket that a large portion of the blade broke free and was in the water. On Friday officials said it sunk to the ocean floor, as debris continues to wash up on the Island’s south shore beaches and harder to reach islands.
UPDATE FRIDAY 11:45 a.m.: A large piece of fiberglass debris from the damaged Vineyard Wind turbine blade has sunk to the ocean floor, as the debris cleanup continues, according to press release from the town of Nantucket that’s timestamped for 9:10 a.m.
Town officials said that about half of the fiberglass shell of the blade remains attached and crews will continue to monitor it until a removal plan is developed. Most of the green and white foam fill dislodged during the initial failure last Saturday.
They added that Vineyard wind is also developing a plan to test water quality around the island.
“This complex undertaking involves engaging experts to determine the best path forward. To conduct the testing, specific information from GE’s Safety Data Sheets is required, which is expected to be delivered to Vineyard Wind today,” according to the press release.
Meanwhile, the town reports that Vineyard Wind and its contractors had 56 people cleaning up beaches as of yesterday, and today crews will continue the work across south shore beaches today, along with Jetties Beach and other north side areas in advance of Saturday’s Triathlon, and the harder-to-reach areas like Tuckernuck, and from the water via offshore vessels.
“Vineyard Wind is utilizing two models to predict the path of debris travel: one from the U.S. Coast Guard and the other from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We expect the modeling to be updated daily for as long as necessary. With today’s winds from the north, we are advised by Vineyard Wind that most of the debris appears to be staying south of the island,” town officials wrote.
Nantucket’s leadership has made clear: it’s not the island’s job to clean up after this crisis.
“A few staff members are acting in advisory roles in specialty areas such as shorebird management,” according to the press release, but Vineyard Wind has assured town officials that they “will remain on-island as long as necessary.”
Reports of debris can be phoned into 833-609-5768 or sent to the cleanup contractor here.
UPDATE THURSDAY 4:18 p.m.: Shortly after 3:00 p.m. a spokesperson for GE Verona, the company that manufactured the damaged blade, released a statement to CAI. “GE Vernova’s top priority is safety and minimizing the impact of this event on the communities surrounding the Vineyard Wind farm in Massachusetts. We continue to work around the clock to enhance mitigation efforts in collaboration with Vineyard Wind and all relevant state, local and federal authorities. We are working with urgency to complete our root cause analysis of this event.”
UPDATE THURSDAY 1:20 p.m.: Nantucket town officials have learned that the “the remaining portion of the blade had come down at approximately 6:40 AM,” according to an official statement.
Officials say they were told that a “very large piece of debris” broke free and is “below the surface.”
The information marks a discrepancy between what Vineyard Wind and Nantucket town officials are sharing, and when they’re sharing it; Vineyard Wind has yet to make mention of any large piece in the water column, telling CAI that as of 8:00 a.m. the damaged blade was still hanging on. Apparently more than 3 hours later, at 11:22 a.m., the company said a “significant part” of the blade has “detached” from the turbine.”
Town officials say Vineyard Wind is hoping to retrieve fiberglass and foam pieces while they remain offshore, and the company is responsible for collecting all debris for analysis and removal from the island.
“Vineyard Wind is fully responsible for the repercussions on Nantucket, and Town Administration and the Select Board will ensure they are held accountable,” the statement says.
The offshore wind developer has reportedly told the town that the majority of the interior foam from the entire blade was released on Saturday, but additional debris could wash ashore tonight or tomorrow.
UPDATE THURSDAY 11:22 a.m.: In a statement emailed at 11:20 a.m., Vineyard Wind reports, “This morning, a significant part of the remaining GE Vernova blade detached from the turbine.” More debris could wash ashore on Nantucket tonight and tomorrow.
The company added that, despite weather conditions creating a “difficult work environment,” maritime crews were onsite overnight preparing to respond to this development. Those crews, stationed on a fleet of vessels, are continuing to remove debris, according to the statement, and additional crews are being deployed to Nantucket island to manage additional debris that washes ashore.
UPDATE THURSDAY 9:05 a.m.: Ian Campbell of Vineyard Wind tells CAI that as of 8:00 a.m. the damaged blade was still hanging on.
As of late Wednesday night part of a blade from an offshore Vineyard Wind turbine was dangling and threatening to snap.
This follows a “blade failure” on Saturday whichcaused debris to wash ashore on several Nantucket beaches.
But Vineyard Wind says there’s still more debris coming in from the project 14 miles from the island and a blade the length of a football field is hanging precipitously.
CEO Klaus Moeller briefed Nantucket leaders last night and residents who attended were not happy.
“We know that none of this debris is toxic,” Moeller said.
The audience responded with audible skepticism.
STORY: Wind farm debris on Nantucket beaches causes high-summer pain
In a dramatic moment, Moeller later interrupted his own remarks to deliver developing news.
“We were informed just now that there’s been a development to the integrity of the blade,” he said. “I’m happy to stay a little bit longer but then have to go work with my team. I don’t know [what’s happened] because I’ve been here.”
Jennifer Cullen, a senior manager at Vineyard Wind, later gave a live update on the wind turbine blade that was damaged Saturday night.
Reading a statement from her phone, she told the room: “While the blade remains attached, it could detach soon. We’ve mobilized our response team and have also witnessed new debris enter the water.”
The federal government shut down the offshore wind farm earlier this week to investigate.
The turbine-maker — GE — is also looking into what caused the blade to fail.
Further Reading:
- Check out an interactive map of offshore wind projects and lease areas on all coasts, plus the individual progress stage of each.
Segment Guests
Eve Zuckoff
Eve Zuckoff is an environment reporter at WCAI in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Segment Transcript
KATHLEEN DAVIS: This is Science Friday. I’m Kathleen Davis. And now it’s time to check in on The State of Science–
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KATHLEEN DAVIS: –local science stories of national significance.
Three weeks ago, a wind turbine blade off the coast of Massachusetts suffered significant damage, plunging large pieces of debris into the ocean. Since then, thousands of pieces of fiberglass have washed up on Nantucket beaches. There’s, of course, a lot of concern about the environmental impacts of this damage. So here with me to help us understand what’s going on is my guest, Eve Zuckoff, climate and environment reporter at WCAI, based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Eve, welcome back to Science Friday.
EVE ZUCKOFF: Hi. Thanks for having me back.
KATHLEEN DAVIS: OK, Eve, take us back to when this all began, on July 13. What exactly happened?
EVE ZUCKOFF: Yeah, OK. So as you said, this story starts the weekend of July 13, when Nantucket residents and vacationers start going to their local beaches and heading out on boats. And over the course of a few days, they start seeing more and more pieces of this green and white debris in the ocean, on the shore. I talked with Colin Wyatt Leddy about what he saw in Nobadeer Beach come Monday.
COLIN WYATT LEDDY: This huge piece of fiberglass came in and floated by us. I mean, it must have been 15 by 20. This morning, I found bits that were one of our freckles. I mean, that small.
EVE ZUCKOFF: Yeah, he’s describing these little flecks of this hard green foam that we saw every few steps we took on the beach. Truckloads of the bigger fiberglass pieces were removed in the first few days, though, all of this had been and was supposed to be 15 miles offshore, inside the blade of one of the two dozen or so wind turbines, that’s been built so far by a company called Vineyard Wind. But today, a few weeks later, the debris is continuing to fall into the water. And it’s now washed up on a number of beaches, increasingly now on Martha’s Vineyard, another island.
KATHLEEN DAVIS: Wow. So what have we learned since about what really happened to this turbine?
EVE ZUCKOFF: Yeah, how did we get one of the three blades of a wind turbine practically sheared off, dangling over the water?
KATHLEEN DAVIS: Right, right.
EVE ZUCKOFF: Well, Vineyard Wind has said that this failure was caused by a manufacturing error by the renewable energy arm of General Electric, which supplies Vineyard Wind with its turbine blades. So GE Vernova said that yes, OK, insufficient bonding led to this breakage. It was not related to the turbine’s design or engineering. So now, all 150 blades that were made in the same factories are set to be inspected using data that was already gathered via a kind of ultrasound for wind turbines. They said they’re going to go through the data on every blade, but they should have identified these deviations earlier.
And meanwhile, the federal government has shut down Vineyard Wind’s whole power production until really more is understood.
KATHLEEN DAVIS: Wow. Yeah, it is concerning. I mean, but this wasn’t the first broken offshore wind turbine, was it?
EVE ZUCKOFF: No, no. It’s rare, but several of these GE Vernova blades have broken on onshore and offshore wind turbines across Europe in recent years. Vineyard Wind’s failure is the second involving this turbine blade model. The last occurred just two months ago, off the coast of England. But GE said that these two events actually appear unrelated because what happened off the UK was an installation error at sea.
KATHLEEN DAVIS: OK. So understandably, a lot of people are worried about the potential environmental impact of this. Do we know anything about these impacts so far?
EVE ZUCKOFF: We don’t know enough yet. Locals have been raising questions about water quality and what happens if this debris is consumed by fish and birds and everything else up the food chain. And an early report from Arcadis, a Dutch design and engineering firm, says that the blade materials and debris are inert, non-soluble, stable, and non-toxic. It’s the same material that’s used in boats. But the firm also released the list of materials that was in the blade.
So I brought that to Valeria La Saponara, who’s a professor at the University of California, Davis, in mechanical and aerospace engineering. She said she’s been studying the materials used to build wind turbines for about 25 years, and said that that finding from this design firm is rushed at best and misleading at worst.
VALERIA LA SAPONARA: These are all carcinogenic materials. So it’s not going to kill you all in the next week, but this has possible long-term consequences.
EVE ZUCKOFF: So more environmental reviews from the federal government and the company itself are in the works. But it is important to remember, Kathleen, that this is just adding to so much other garbage that ends up in the ocean. And it’s all still in service of drawing down our reliance on oil and gas, which, I mean, how many oil spills have we read about? How much did oil and gas companies drive up greenhouse gas emissions versus what this offshore wind company is trying to do?
KATHLEEN DAVIS: So have you spoken to people who live in Nantucket? What are you hearing from them?
EVE ZUCKOFF: Yeah, I’ve heard reactions that fall into a few buckets. The angriest people are always the loudest. And many in that category are the ones whose livelihoods rely on the water. I’ve talked with fishermen and seafood restaurateurs, and to the owner of a surf school, who’s lost business over this. And you have to understand, this is a seasonal economy. So a day of lost income on Nantucket is a week anywhere else.
And that’s part of why the town of Nantucket is getting urged to sue the project developers. Officials are considering it. But I’ve also heard from people who say, look, this blade failure has been awful, but I’m still in support of offshore wind because it’s really helpful to pull away from fossil fuels and get us towards renewable energy.
KATHLEEN DAVIS: Eve, you follow this world of offshore wind very closely. Do you think, in your expert opinion, that this will have any impacts on this industry moving forward?
EVE ZUCKOFF: I don’t know about expert, but, to date, there’s been no evidence that this one event has had any meaningful impact on the industry as a whole. There are about 30 projects in this country in various states of review outside of Vineyard Wind. A few small American projects have already been completed. And even this one event won’t kill Vineyard Wind.
I think that the big question is what it means for public opinion. We’ve seen in recent years different Massachusetts offshore wind project get sunk because people opposed it so hard for so long. And at this point, this story is still a local one. People on Nantucket will probably hate Vineyard Wind and offshore wind for a long time, the ones who are angry now.
But the story hasn’t broken through. It could. And that partly depends on how Vineyard Wind resolves this issue and whether this story catches on to the rumor mill– no pun intended. We saw endangered right whales get swept up in this. So it actually wouldn’t be the first time.
KATHLEEN DAVIS: Well, Eve, thank you so much for telling us all about this situation. And that’s all the time that we have for now.
Eve Zuckoff, climate and environment reporter at WCAI, based in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Thank you again.
EVE ZUCKOFF: Thank you.
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About Kathleen Davis
@katjacquelineKathleen Davis is a producer and fill-in host at Science Friday, which means she spends her weeks researching, writing, editing, and sometimes talking into a microphone. She’s always eager to talk about freshwater lakes and Coney Island diners.