Wind turbine blade accident off Nantucket raising concerns on LI

As the developer of Empire Wind sets the stage for construction of a project 12 miles off Long Beach, officials and residents are keeping an eye on the aftermath of an offshore wind turbine blade break off the Massachusetts coast.

The blade mishap, in waters 12 miles from Nantucket Island, has left a debris field on popular beaches and led to a halt of turbine construction work for Vineyard Wind, the nation’s second project in federal waters, which already had begun producing energy.

Turbine manufacturer GE Vernova blamed the problem on a "material deviation" at a Canadian factory that made blade components. The company said it would reinspect all blades in use. 

Vineyard Wind, in a series of dispatches, said its workers were "on the beach monitoring for debris to assist in maintaining safe conditions for beachgoers and swimmers. Vineyard Wind is focused on assisting in the recovery of debris caused by GE Vernova’s damaged wind blade."

A federal investigation is underway, and officials from Long Beach to Albany say they’re monitoring the event.

It comes as Equinor, the Norway-based energy conglomerate that is developing Empire Wind, has begun work on its project off Long Beach that will bring power to New York City.

Equinor said it has "substantial risk mitigation and safety procedures already in place" if a similar incident strikes off Long Island. The company emphasized it is using a different blade manufacturer than the GE Vernova blades being used by the Vineyard Wind project, for which construction has been suspended pending investigations.

Equinor spokesman David Schoetz said the company is monitoring the Vineyard Wind investigation "for any lessons," but is not changing "any elements of our offshore construction" as a result.

David Hardy, chief executive of Orsted offshore North America, which is developing a separate project called Sunrise Wind project for Long Island, said of the Vineyard Wind mishap: "In general we’ve got a lot of gigawatts of operating offshore wind projects around the world, and this is a very rare event." Sunrise Wind turbines will be located off the coast of Massachusetts, and won't be visible from Long Island. 

But those assurances did little to quell concerns from those who will be closest to scores of turbine blades, a football-field long set to be spinning off Long Island in the next two years.

"This only adds to the myriad concerns already expressed about the development of offshore wind," said Brendan Finn, president of the Long Beach City Council. "I’m not against offshore wind, but this event shows how detrimental these projects can be to beach communities. There’s no reason these turbines need to be built so close to communities that depend on their beaches."

Long Beach City Manager Daniel Creighton said the city has "not heard a thing from Equinor, unfortunately" about the blade accident, and said he'd like to know "what their remediation plan would be if a similar event happened on their project since our beaches are a major source of revenue for the city. You can be certain that this administration would seek to recover all costs and lost revenue if something like that happened here." 

Hal Riskin, a member of a Long Beach group that already had organized against Empire Wind, said the Vineyard incident raises alarms even higher.

"I’m definitely worried about it," Riskin said. "We have 1 million people here. It’s going to be a nightmare" if a blade snaps in a hurricane or a construction accident.

New York State, meanwhile, is also monitoring the investigation of the blade break, but has not changed course with new rules or procedures for state-contracted projects. New York has among the most aggressive offshore wind programs in the county, with about 9,000 megawatts expected over the next decade.

"Obviously we’re monitoring the circumstance at Vineyard Wind carefully," said Doreen Harris, chief executive of the state Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers offshore wind contracts. "I’m in close contact with my corollary agencies in the Massachusetts area as well. Obviously we’re looking for the root-cause analysis [and] are monitoring carefully GE’s statements as to the root cause of the blade break that occurred in that particular installation."

GE spokesmen didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Asked if the incident could impact New York’s approach to offshore wind safety and construction, Harris said, "At this moment, obviously this is an issue related not only to a different jurisdiction but frankly federal oversight with respect to the permitting of the project."

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees federal leasing for the wind-farm areas and approves federal permitting for the projects, referred questions about the accident to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the lead federal agency investigating the Vineyard Wind blade mishap.

The safety agency in a statement said that it "continues to prohibit Vineyard Wind 1 from generating electricity from any of the facilities or building any additional wind turbine generator towers, nacelles, or blades."

The order requires Vineyard Wind submit to an analysis of the "risk to personnel and mitigation measures developed before personnel boarding any facility," though Vineyard can still install cables and conduct surveys for the project outside the damage zone.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.