Vineyard Wind Cleared to Resume Limited Offshore Turbine Installs
Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova on Tuesday said U.S. safety officials have allowed them to resume limited construction on an offshore wind farm off the Massachusetts coast where a turbine blade shattered last month.
Vineyard Wind, owned by Avangrid AGR.N and Denmark's Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, was ordered to stop power production and construction after a blade broke apart on July 13 and sent pieces of fiberglass into the water that washed up on nearby beaches.
In a joint statement, the project developer and turbine maker said they are now able to install towers and nacelles, the portion of a turbine that houses generating components, according to a new order from the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).
The incident has been a blow to both Vineyard Wind, the first major U.S. offshore wind farm, and the nation's budding offshore wind industry.
The project, located 15 miles (24 km) south of the Massachusetts island of Nantucket, is still under construction, with only about a third of its planned turbines installed.
Upon completion, Vineyard Wind is projected to produce 806 megawatts from 62 turbines, enough electricity to power around 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts.
The updated suspension order still does not allow further blade installation or power production at this time, the companies said.
A BSEE spokesperson confirmed the updated order and said the agency was still investigating the blade failure.
The companies also said they have begun controlled removal of portions of the damaged blade to reduce the risk of additional debris falling into the ocean.
Cutting operations on Sunday and Monday removed a substantial amount of the remaining portions of the damaged blade, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova said.
"Our primary focus continues to be removing the parts of the blade that pose any risk of contributing further debris into the ocean," said GE Vernova Chief Sustainability Officer Roger Martella.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nichola Groom and Brijesh Patel and Rahul Paswan; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Jonathan Oatis and Marguerita Choy)