GE Vernova is pointing to a “manufacturing deviation” and not an engineering design flaw in the failure of its wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket, roiling the summer island community.
“Our preliminary investigation of the event indicates that the affected blade experienced a manufacturing deviation – in this case, insufficient bonding – that the quality assurance program should have identified,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
The latest development in the Vineyard Wind crisis broke during a second-quarter earnings call with investors early Wednesday morning.
It followed the release of an initial environmental analysis of the disaster Tuesday night, with the assessment finding debris from the blade to be “inert, non-soluble, stable and non-toxic.”
“Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working with urgency to scrutinize our blade manufacturing and quality assurance program across offshore wind,” GE Vernova said in its statement. “We have work to do, but we are confident in our ability to implement corrective actions and move forward.”
A key determination in the preliminary investigation, according to the company that designed, manufactured, and installed the wind turbines, is that the failure is not connected to a breakage in the United Kingdom.
In May, a single blade on the same model of GE turbine at the Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm – off the northeast coast of England – also sustained damage, leading its operator SSE Renewables to restrict access to the waters around the project and investigate the cause, Reuters reported last week.
That event stemmed from an “installation error out at sea,” GE Vernova stated.
Company officials did not divulge further details on the Vineyard Wind failure during the earnings call. Representatives from both companies are slated to be present at a Nantucket Select Board meeting this afternoon at 5:30.
GE Vernova built the blade, which initially tore apart on July 13 before the remainder of it dropped into the ocean last Thursday, at one of its factories in Gaspe, Canada, vice president of investor Michael Lapides said on the Wednesday morning call.
All 150 blades built at the factory will be reinspected, he said.
“We’re not going to talk about the timeline today,” Lapides said. “We have work to do. But, I have a high degree of confidence that we can do this.”
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