The Vineyard Wind offshore project, which dispersed shards and fiberglass along Massachusetts beaches this week, was the latest of a string of wind turbines manufactured by GE Vernova to fail.

According to a recent analysis of wind power incidents, several onshore turbines have broken down in Germany and Sweden in the past few years.

The incidents with the turbine blades have caused a setback to projects, at a moment when the U.S. government and other governments are turning towards wind power as a way to combat climate change by moving away from fossil fuels. These mishaps have led to questions being raised about the quality and reliability of GE turbines, which are used widely in the industry.

Chris Dendrinos is a clean-energy industry analyst at RBC Capital Markets. He said that it was not known whether the Vineyard Wind incident was due to a faulty installation, or a problem with the blades themselves.

Siemens Gamesa, a competitor of GE Vernova, has been working on quality issues with their wind turbines following a series of equipment failures.

Federal safety regulators ordered Vineyard Wind on Wednesday to cease operations and construction activities pending an investigation of the cause of the accident.

This is the first large U.S. off-shore wind farm. It is still in construction, with about a third (or less) of the planned turbines already on the water.

Vineyard Wind will install GE Vernova Haliade X turbines with 107-meter blades. Vineyard Wind reported that the blade broke approximately 20 meters (65.62 feet) from the root.

The cause of the damage was not known by the company.

In May, a single GE blade at the Dogger Bank A off-shore wind farm was also damaged, prompting its operator SSE Renewables, to restrict access to waters surrounding the project.

The results of the investigation were not made public. SSE Renewables didn't immediately respond to an inquiry for comment.

Treacy Reynolds, GE Vernova spokesperson, said that the incidents were not related but did no elaborate.

The New York Stock Exchange closed Wednesday with GE Vernova closing at $165.83, a 9.25% drop.

In the past two years, GE Cypress onshore turbines broke at wind farms in Germany. Onshore turbines tend to be smaller than offshore turbines. GE has not commented on the onshore failures.

Vineyard Wind reported on Wednesday that it had removed more than six truckloads of debris, about 17 cubic yards.

The town of Nantucket released a statement Wednesday on its website stating that the beaches on the south coast of the island were reopened after they had been closed due to debris washed up on shore. (Reporting and editing by Nichola Graefe, Richard Valdmanis)