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Massachusetts’ only offshore wind project is under serious threat again, but this time, it’s not at the hands of the Trump administration.
Vineyard Wind on Wednesday sued its turbine supplier, GE Renewables, in civil court in Boston, alleging GE is breaching its contract and planning to abandon the project by April 28 — during the critical final stage of coming fully online.
If GE exits, Vineyard Wind says, the project “will likely fail, leaving the windfarm stranded” and unable to reach the power output for Massachusetts residents that Vineyard promised in power contracts.
“[GE] walking away threatens the Project’s very survival,” Vineyard Wind attorneys wrote in a filing, and the project’s failure would “leave behind a dormant wind farm graveyard.”
According to the complaint, GE filed a termination notice with Vineyard Wind in late February for its contracts to supply wind turbines and service and maintain them, citing more than $300 million in claims unpaid by Vineyard Wind.
The contracts guarantee that GE technicians and employees will bring all turbines online through a commissioning process, and thereafter oversee the wind farm for at least the first few years of its operations.
Vineyard Wind says GE owes it more than $800 million for years of delays and impacts from the catastrophic blade failure in 2024. It says the figure was determined by a “project engineer,” appointed by the contract to rule on claims the parties file against one another.
That $800 million exceeds the more than $300 million GE says it is owed by Vineyard Wind, and Vineyard Wind says the contract permits it to withhold those payments while it is owed.
A GE spokesperson in a statement to The Light Friday evening said Vineyard Wind has “chosen to withhold payments for more than 18 months, totaling more than $300 million, for work performed.
“Consequently, GE Vernova exercised its contractual right to terminate the ongoing project agreements for non-payment,” the spokesperson wrote. “The company remains committed to the safety of the wind farm and stands by our performance and our contractual obligations. We will vigorously defend our position through the appropriate legal process.”
If the $4.5 billion wind farm does not reach full power, Vineyard Wind attorneys argued, it cannot make a return on investments and repay the banks that lent $2 billion. If that happens, the lenders may declare a default and foreclose on the project, which Vineyard Wind’s attorneys said would threaten the project’s “ability to survive.”
The companies that operate in the offshore wind space shroud themselves in secrecy. Information is protected as proprietary in a competitive market. Because of this, Vineyard Wind argues no one else can properly or economically take over GE’s remaining commissioning work, and eventual operations, of the 62 turbines installed 15 miles offshore.
“Throughout the life of the Project, GER has refused to share basic information about the [wind turbine generators],” Vineyard Wind’s complaint reads. “It is unlikely that GER would share even more detailed information necessary for the repair and maintenance of the turbines with a replacement supplier.”
The wind farm’s 62 turbines are all installed. But they “are not yet fully operational and are able to produce power only at levels well below those intended,” Vineyard Wind attorneys wrote.
Vineyard Wind said currently, there are many “nonconformities” with the turbines that only GE personnel have the knowledge and expertise to address. This includes repeated tripping of the electrical system that is causing the turbines to shut down and reducing power output.
Vineyard Wind also tore into GE in the complaint over what it called “incredibly” and “inexcusably poor performance,” claiming delays at nearly every stage of the project that have amounted to more than two years.
The project said there was an earlier blade incident in 2024 that cost an additional $20 million (personnel damaged a blade during offloading from the installation vessel).
As for the summer 2024 blade failure, Vineyard Wind said the bonding issue was so severe for the other blades produced in Canada (all of which had to be removed, causing further delay), that some of them needed to be reinforced before removal, lest they also collapse into the ocean.
Vineyard Wind is seeking a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against GE.
GE has until April 15 to respond to the complaint. A hearing is currently scheduled for April 16 at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.
After more than two years of offshore construction, Vineyard Wind completed installation last month. It has been sending partial power for more than one year.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
Oh my! Anyone who’s been closely following this saga can’t be too terribly surprised by this turn of events, as all the players point fingers at each other. It’s been a mess from the beginning and a mess it will end. And it will be we taxpayers and MA SouthCoast residents—and the ocean inhabitants—who pay the real price for this abomination that ought not to have ever happened in the first place.
Sadly predictable
The Feds need to immediately reinstate the decommissioning bonds on Vineyard Wind.
Oil filled transformers sitting there ready to spill on the shorelines of the Cape and Islands. Time to stop the madness.
Very unfortunate but not surprising. Anyone in the offshore wind industry knowing anything about WTGs knew that GE wasn’t par with Siemens or Vestas, there were plenty of problems with their design and their technical proposal in general. The worst part is that when they were told that by the Danish experts they refused to listened and claimed “they knew better”. 6-7 years later and a series of failed projects confirm what we all suspected back then.
Croak it once and for all. Go GE.
Good article very truthful.
Surprised the Governor and the Mayor did not know about this especially before the Mayor touted this as one of his accomplishments and highlights in his Mayoral Address. Reading this is very alarming and if this happens it definitely won’t help lower our electric bills anytime soon.
If GE exits, Vineyard Wind says, the project will likely fail, leaving the wind farm stranded and unable to reach the power output for Massachusetts residents that Vineyard promised in the power contracts.
GE walking away threatens the Project’s very survival, Vineyard Wind attorneys wrote in a filing, and the project’s failure would “leave behind a dormant wind farm graveyard.
100% we need new political leadership in our city and state.
Vineyard Wind “said” GE owes it $800 million for delays and impacts from the catastrophic blade failure in 2024. The figure was determined by a “project engineer.”A project engineer cannot account for the full financial loss of a project alone. Offshore wind construction is too complex for one person to oversee every variable, such as labor fluctuations and market risks. “The COVID-19 situation had a major effect on delivery and major inflation costs.In the future it could also be determined that microplastics from the blade deterioration could become a liability as well as newer studies on whale deaths and loss of fishing grounds. The bottom line is the project is to great of a liability for investors.
Vineyard Wind sues GE Vernova: What About Massachusetts ???
Vineyard Wind claims GE owes $800 million for years of delays and impacts from the catastrophic blade failure in 2024.
The project was a boondoggle from the beginning. The state of Massachusetts should share blame for the blade failure.
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, a quasi-state agency, built the Wind Technology Testing Center in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Blade manufacturers and contractors were required to test turbine blades for compliance with international design standards to ensure reliability and manage risk.
The blade testing was flawed and extrapolated. The test site was too small, and only one prototype blade from France was tested.
To manufacture the GE Vernova blades for Vineyard Wind, only one “prototype” blade was tested, which was manufactured in Cherbourg, France, and sent to the MassCEC Wind Testing Facility. The test site was too small to accommodate testing the blade, so engineers cut about 50 feet off the blade tip. They went forward, testing the blade, extrapolating figures to pass the test.
The conundrum doesn’t end here. Believe it or not, most of the blades manufactured for Vineyard Wind were manufactured in Canada at a company called LM Wind Power in Gaspé. General Electric (GE) acquired LM Wind Power in 2017.
None of the 130 Canadian blades manufactured were tested at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center wind testing facility. In July 2024, one of the Vineyard wind blades failed, resulting in the replacement of all 130 blades made in Canada. Not even a “prototype” blade from Canada was tested.
GE Renewable Energy had collaborated with the MassCEC Wind Technology Testing Center to test large-scale turbine blades.
Massachusetts tested only one blade out of hundreds.
Healey and Mitchell adored this project, it was hailed as state of the art technology that would lead us into the future, and help us with our outrageous utility bills. With everything that has transpired it is unbelievable that there was no overlook by the state that could have prevented this from happening. If this goes south this Governor is fully responsible for all the money spent on a failed energy program and the possibility of this becoming the largest environmental clean up in our state’s history.
Who would enter into a agreement where only one company has the knowledge to commission something. That should never have happened in the first place. If GE goes out of business now you have worthless junk sitting in the middle of the ocean. Again, just another reason this project should never have been done in the first place.