Feds Lift Suspension Order For Vineyard Wind Six Months After Blade Failure

The federal government has lifted its suspension order for Vineyard Wind, six months after the catastrophic blade failure that littered Nantucket's beaches and the surrounding waters with debris. 

A Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) spokesperson told the Current Saturday that the agency will require Vineyard Wind to remove all installed blades manufactured at GE Vernova's plant in Gaspé, Canada. That facility is where the alleged "manufacturing deviation" - specifically insufficient bonding of the blade materials - occurred which led to the July 13, 2024 blade failure at Vineyard Wind's lease area 15 miles southwest of Nantucket.

"BSEE will not allow installation of new blades manufactured at this facility," the agency spokesperson said.

Under the terms of an addendum to Vineyard Wind's construction and operations plan submitted to BSEE late last year, Vineyard Wind will now "remove blades from a maximum of 22 wind turbine generators that were installed prior to the July 13, 2024 blade failure." That number represents more than one-third of Vineyard Wind's 62 turbines - not all of which have been installed yet - and could mean the company has to take down as many as 66 of the 350-foot-long blades.

The news of the suspension order being lifted was first reported by the New Bedford Light.

The lifting of the suspension order comes in the final hours of President Joe Biden's administration, which had championed the development of the offshore wind industry, and days ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. Trump has threatened to end offshore wind projects on "day one" of his administration and is reportedly collaborating with New Jersey Congressman Jefferson Van Drew on an executive order to do so. 

BSEE is lifting the suspension order for the project without completing its long-promised “independent investigation” into the cause the blade failure.

“The investigation remains ongoing,” the BSEE spokesperson said on Saturday.

While the suspension order for Vineyard Wind is now lifted, BSEE is still requiring the offshore wind energy developer to complete the site-specific study that evaluates the environmental harm and other damage from the blade failure which the agency had previously ordered back in September 2024.

Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova will also be required to demonstrate "that the newly manufactured blades meet the original design criteria, the wind turbine generator (WTG) is fit for service and has redundant power, and, post-commissioning, the blade monitoring system is functioning properly and will shut the WTG down if blade damage occurs."

Vineyard Wind spokesman Craig Gilvarg declined to answer specific questions about the company's timetable for removing the blades, but shared the following statement with the Current on Saturday:

“Following months of extensive work and collaboration with the federal interagency, GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind developed a detailed and rigorous approach to safely resume the construction and operation of the project," Gilvarg said. "Friday's action cements this plan as a modification to the COP, which strengthens the project’s construction program, ensuring that this rigorous approach will guide all project activities in perpetuity. Going forward, the companies remain committed to safety as the highest priority, and are grateful for the care and engagement with which the federal, tribal, state, and local authorities have approached this project.”

The original suspension order for Vineyard Wind implemented by BSEE in July was first modified in August to allow Vineyard Wind to continue installing turbine towers and nacelles. Since then, Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova have installed numerous new towers and nacelles (the box at the top of the towers) at the wind farm and removed additional blade debris from the sea floor. The order was subsequently modified again to allow Vineyard Wind to resume "specific activities" which "may be allowed on a case-by-case basis after sufficient risk analysis has been performed and mitigation measures are adopted."

In late October, GE Vernova announced that it would remove "some blades" from the wind farm after the re-examination of more than 8,300 ultrasound images of the installed blades and physical blade inspections with “crawler” drones.

Over the fall and winter, GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind had been shipping some blades from the staging area in the Port of New Bedford across the Atlantic Ocean to another LM Wind Power plant in Cherbourg, France.