More problems for manufacturer of failed turbine blades in Nantucket

GE Vernova, the maker of the defective offshore wind turbine blades that broke off of the coast of Nantucket and scattered the beach with fiberglass shards, has found more defects in its turbine blades.

According to the New York Times:

The company discovered that a “low single-digit” number of blades had a “manufacturing deviation” similar to that of the blade that had collapsed in July, Scott L. Strazik, the company’s chief executive, said on a call with analysts to discuss financial results.

“We’ve had a difficult four months and are disappointed given the impact on our customers and on our financial results,” Mr. Strazik said. He added that the company was “proactively strengthening” some of the blades either in the factory or in the field. The blades involved are believed to have been made at a factory in Gaspé, Quebec, although Mr. Strazik did not specifically single that plant out…

There have also been two blade failures on Dogger Bank, a giant project off the coast of England, although GE Vernova blamed the incidents on errors in installing and operating the turbines rather than on manufacturing defects.

The company is tanking $700 million in losses for offshore contracts including Vineyard Wind, the $4 billion project that is intended to be the first commercial offshore wind farm in waters off the U.S. The first of the project’s turbines were only installed in January and one failed by July due to “manufacturing defects.” Removal of seabed debris from the broken blade was due to be completed last week and “the final task, removal of the root of the blade from the rotor hub, is expected to occur in the coming weeks.”

Construction was halted after July’s breakage but has since resumed, and last week received approval to install new blades on turbines. The company and Vineyard Wind jointly announced they intend “to remove some blades from the Vineyard Wind farm while strengthening other blades.” Let’s hope it’s enough to mitigate the environmental impacts of this failure of offshore wind.