Wind turbine failed, “sharp fiberglass shards” on Nantucket beaches

On Tuesday, Vineyard Wind was ordered to shut down until further notice to clean up the shards of a turbine blade that failed Saturday. Six Nantucket beaches were closed for swimming.

CBS News reported:

“You can walk on the beaches, however we strongly recommend you wear footwear due to sharp, fiberglass shards and debris on the beaches,” the Nantucket Harbormaster said.

The Vineyard Wind turbine suffered blade damage Saturday night. No one was hurt, but large chunks of the blade began washing onto the beaches in the area in the days that followed.

Crews could be seen Tuesday afternoon removing pieces of fiberglass from the beach.

CBS reported this morning that pieces of the broken Vineyard Wind turbine blade could fall into the ocean off Massachusetts soon. The CEO of Vineyard Wind, Klaus Moeller, had to leave a Wednesday meeting abruptly due to the worsening situation.

“Who would have expected this to fail so quickly?” one resident said. 

“We’ve got a bunch of suits here trying to cover their tracks,” said another resident.

During Wednesday night’s meeting, town leaders grilled Moeller about the delay in notification.

“We didn’t hear anything for 48 hours,” said select board member Brooke Mohr. “We’re asking questions that you don’t have answers for. I don’t want to wait a week to get a bunch of answers.”

Two hours into the meeting, Moeller suddenly left, after telling everyone he had just received an update on the “integrity of the blade.”

A representative for the company later returned to the meeting and said the remaining portion of the blade was still intact and attached to the turbine, but they believe “there is an increased possibility it could detach soon.”

“We have mobilized our response team and have also witnessed new debris enter the water,” the spokeswoman for Vineyard Wind told the audience.

With power generation from Vineyard Wind beginning only this year, these are legitimate questions to ask. The environmental risks of wind turbine materials are often overlooked. Let’s hope this incident leaves no lasting environmental damage.