Operations at Vineyard Wind have come to a screeching halt after a catastrophic incident over the weekend scattered wind blade debris across Nantucket Sound and shut down Nantucket beaches, federal safety officials announced Tuesday. They stated that work at Vineyard Wind is “shut down until further notice.”
Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, boasts 10 turbines generating about 136 megawatts of power. The ambitious project, however, now faces serious scrutiny as it plans to expand to 62 turbines with a target of 806 megawatts.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) reported a “turbine blade failure incident” at the Vineyard Wind 1 site on Saturday, a revelation that Vineyard Wind reluctantly disclosed Monday afternoon.
“There were no injuries reported, but operations are shut down until further notice,” a BSEE spokesperson stated. “BSEE is coordinating with the United States Coast Guard and state officials to ensure comprehensive information sharing. A team of BSEE experts is onsite to work closely with Vineyard Wind on an exhaustive analysis of the incident and the necessary next steps.”
In a move to mitigate the fallout, the company and the U.S. Coast Guard have established a 500-meter safety zone around the compromised turbine, situated approximately 15 miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
Nantucket’s harbormaster reacted swiftly, closing the island’s southern beaches to swimming on Tuesday morning. The harbormaster’s office warned via social media about “large floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards,” urging beachgoers, “You can walk on the beaches, but we strongly recommend wearing footwear due to sharp, fiberglass shards and debris.”
Adding to the mounting pressure, Vineyard Wind and General Electric, the supplier and installer of the wind farm’s turbine blades, will conduct their own investigations into the incident, raising questions about the quality and reliability of the components used.
The repercussions of the failure were starkly visible as pieces of fiberglass and foam from the broken blade littered Nantucket’s south shore beaches. Each blade at the wind farm stretches roughly 350 feet from tip to turbine, underscoring the scale of the debris spread.
Vineyard Wind issued a statement on Tuesday committing to ongoing clean-up efforts on island beaches for several days. They advised the public, property owners, or town officials who discover debris to contact Ian Campbell at (781) 983-8943 or icampbell@vineyardwind.com immediately.
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