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The splintered nub of the broken Vineyard Wind blade sustained further damage last week when lightning struck it, according to the company and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“Based on a visual inspection of the damaged blade, preliminary evidence indicates that the blade may have been impacted by a lightning strike, though we continue to assess in coordination with GE Vernova,” said Vineyard Wind in a statement Sunday night.
Vineyard Wind said there is “no indication of debris” from the incident, which occurred on Thursday, and that current information shows no damage was sustained by the nacelle (the turbine generator to which the blades attach) or the tower.
The company deployed aerial resources and at least one fishing vessel to monitor the area for debris and observe the damaged blade up close. (Last summer, fishing vessels helped catch the flotsam after the blade failed.)
The Coast Guard said there were no reported navigational hazards as of Sunday. Vineyard Wind sits about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, and the blade breakage sent debris to the South Coast and Islands last summer.
An email obtained and posted by the Nantucket Current purportedly from a Coast Guard officer stated the blade nub “caught fire and detached.” The Light also received a copy of the email, but has not been able to verify it with the Coast Guard.
Weather data shows it rained in Nantucket late Thursday night into early Friday morning.
Wind turbines are equipped with lightning protection systems, since the skyscraper-tall metal structures will invariably attract lightning during their 20 to 30 years of operations.
A lightning protection system is built to divert electrical current into the ground in order to protect the blades and nacelle.
A plan that another wind developer submitted to the federal government described the system as composed of “lightning receptors” in both the nacelle and blade tips that can conduct the lightning current through a cabling system leading through the tower into a “grounding” system.
Lightning strikes are currently the largest source of blade failure, according to federal data.
The broken blade, on Vineyard Wind turbine AW38, manufactured at the troubled Canada plant, snapped on July 13 during routine testing.
In August, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova, the turbine manufacturer, launched a plan to recover blade debris and remove the damaged root, in no particular order. As of this winter, the root remained attached to the turbine hub. It is unclear why it hasn’t yet been removed.
Vineyard Wind said this weekend that GE Vernova plans to remove and replace the broken blade in May.
Neither company responded to a question from The Light about the damaged turbine’s lightning protection system.
A GE Vernova spokesperson in an email to The Light spoke in vague terms, stating a “single turbine” at the wind farm “has experienced an isolated event,” confirming it was turbine AW38.
No injuries occurred, per GE, which is now working with Vineyard Wind to investigate possible damage.
The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which oversees offshore project safety, did not immediately respond to questions and a request for comment.
BSEE and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management lifted Vineyard Wind’s monthslong suspension in January just ahead of the Donald Trump administration. The agencies allowed blade installation and power generation to resume with new safety requirements, including the mandated removal of the faulty blades manufactured in Gaspé, Quebec. Under a revised construction and operations plan, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova are currently undertaking efforts to remove blades from “a maximum of 22 wind turbine generators” — more than a third of all turbine locations.
A company executive last week told investors that Vineyard Wind should be completed this year, E&E News reported Monday.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Vineyard Wind Turbine AW 38 Hit By Lightning -No Notification For 4 Days
Nantucket MA — They did the same thing on July 13, 2024 not notifying the public for days
Vineyard wind is under no obligation to notify Nantucket.
Vineyard Wind is not in Nantucket waters.
It is in Federal waters.
Vineyard Wind notified the Federal government.
What harm was done to the public by not notifying for a few days?
What would the public have done with that information?
Do draggers notify Nantucket when they lose doors, nets and steel cables 20+ miles off Nantucket?
They will.be all coming down soon.
Before the oil production platforms in the Gulf of America?
“Wind turbines are equipped with lightning protection systems, since the skyscraper-tall metal structures will invariably attract lightning during their 20 to 30 years of operations.” I would suggest to Ms. Lennon that she revise her public relations estimate of just how long these wind turbines will continue to operate. The published shelf life of these turbines is five years. Turbines installed off the coast of New Jersey a few years ago are already failing, turbines have burned, and the blade failure rate overall, in all current installations is estimated to be 3,800 blades per year. Once five years have elapsed, the original developers have disappeared; there are no crews willing to go out there to repair and replace and the public is stuck with an ocean full in industrial junk and waste. That is what we are faced with, along with electric rates per KW which will be the highest in all the world. The Boston area already, in comparison to the Montreal metro area pays 586% more for its electricity than Montreal, which, at a population of 3.0 million, is 50% larger than Boston’s. Thank you, Democratic Governor Healey. Additionally, Shell Oil, within the past month, has withdrawn its wind farm commitments on the East Coast and the Gulf of America. There are also basic testing requirements for testing the installation parameters of the turbines off the Islands which have never been completed, according to BOEM records.
I can’t wait to read the future news headline:
The United States House of Representatives with the Republican majority, and the United States Senate, also with the Republican majority, passed legislation to terminate, and ban all current, and future wind turbine projects, and the removal of all existing wind turbines within 500 miles of all United States East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of America shore lines at the cost of all wind generated energy corporations, and its investors.
As a result, all “Green Generated Energy” corporations filed chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after the bill was signed into law by President Trump this morning.