Vineyard Wind to remove blades from turbines after July incident – ​​NECN

Vineyard Wind plans to remove an unspecified number of blades from existing turbines after conducting scans and quality checks in response to a mid-July mishap that sent debris flying into the sea, company officials announced Wednesday.

Officials at Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova, which made the blades, said shortly before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday they were removing some existing blades and reinforcing others “out of an abundance of caution.”

GE Vernova in July identified “insufficient bonding” during manufacturing as the likely cause of the damage to a 107-meter-long AW-38 blade and said company officials did not believe it was a “technical design defect.”

The project has not generated electricity for more than three months after a rotor blade shattered and then fell into the sea on July 13.

“After conducting extensive quality testing – including re-examination of more than 8,300 ultrasound images per blade and physical blade inspections using 'crawler' drones – and out of an abundance of caution, GE Vernova intends to remove some blades from the vineyard.” “We are building the wind farm while strengthening other blades as needed to support the safety and operational readiness of this project,” the company said.

A spokesman did not immediately respond to further questions about how many blades would be removed.

Project officials said they received approval Wednesday “to proceed with the installation of new blades on the project's turbines once strict safety and operational conditions are met.”

Federal regulators on Aug. 13 allowed workers to resume limited activities, including installing towers and nacelles that cover the turbines themselves. Since then, eight new towers and gondolas have been installed, the company said on Wednesday.

Vineyard Winds' broken turbine continues to cause problems as debris washes up on some beaches in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Follow NBC10 Boston:

A spokesman said electricity production “will only resume once further progress has been made and all necessary approvals have been granted.”

At the turbine where the blade broke in July, workers had completed the rotating blades to reduce debris, remove the hanging remnant of the broken blade and clear debris from the affected platform. The company expects to complete the removal of seabed debris this week and remove the root of the affected blade from the rotor hub “in the coming weeks.”

Sampling and analysis work is also currently underway to investigate the environmental impact of the blade collapse. Project officials said the results would be available in the coming weeks.

“Consistent with our commitment to be thorough and not rush before returning to work, we continue to make progress in implementing our August incident and response action plan, with safety, operational integrity and long-term reliability our top priorities “This important project,” said Roger Martella, Chief Sustainability Officer of GE Vernova. “We will continue to work with our stakeholders as we execute and complete the remaining steps of the plan.”

Klaus Moeller, CEO of Vineyard Wind, added: “The safety of our team, surrounding communities and the local environment has always been at the forefront of everything we do and we are confident that the quality and safety assessments carried out throughout “The last three months will make this a better, stronger and safer project in the future.”

Years after the state committed to offshore wind energy, the proposed 800-megawatt facility is the first and currently only offshore wind project slated to deliver clean power to Massachusetts. Other developers have backed out of their original contracts, citing high costs, and the state is in the process of procuring up to 2,678 megawatts more power for three projects that submitted bids this year.

Vineyard Wind had about 10 operating turbines producing about 136 megawatts of power before the incident prompted federal regulators to order a halt.