Town Reaches $10.5 Million Settlement With GE Vernova Over Vineyard Wind Blade Failure

GE Vernova will pay the town of Nantucket and island businesses $10.5 million as part of a settlement related to the offshore wind turbine blade failure in July 2024 at the Vineyard Wind farm.

The town announced the settlement Friday morning with GE Vernova, the manufacturer of the Haliade-X turbine that failed, nearly one year since the 300-foot-long blade collapsed 15 miles southwest of the island, littering Nantucket beaches with debris and scattering fiberglass and foam around the region.

Under the agreement, Nantucket will establish a “Community Claims Fund” to provide compensation for economic harm caused by the blade failure. Nantucket will engage an independent third-party administrator to evaluate claims from local businesses and issue payments.

Notably, Vineyard Wind itself is not a signatory to the settlement agreement.

“The Town of Nantucket commends GE Vernova for its leadership in reaching this agreement. By contrast, the Town has found Vineyard Wind wanting in terms of its leadership, accountability, transparency, and stewardship in the aftermath of the blade failure and determined that it would not accept Vineyard Wind as a signatory to the settlement,” the town stated Friday morning.

Despite this statement, Section 4 of the settlement appears to release Vineyard Wind from all liability related to the 2024 blade incident, even though it did not sign the agreement.

"Vineyard Wind is indemnified by GE Vernova for the blade failure, so suing Vineyard Wind just leads back to GE Vernova, which company was willing to negotiate in good faith for what we are confident is a just settlement number," said attorney Greg Werkheiser, of Cultural Heritage Partners, the town's special counsel for offshore wind matters. "Also, GE would not be wiling to settle if the next day they would just be brought back into a town suit against Vineyard Wind by Vineyard Wind impleading them. That said, the town felt strongly that Vineyard Wind did not earn a seat at the table in negotiating all the other terms of the agreement and the town didn't want to give a false impression through Vineyard Wind being a signatory that they had participated in good faith. Most importantly, the town reserved its full rights to seek changes in behavior from Vineyard Wind for its performance, or lack thereof, in matters outside of the blade failure in all other forums, including public advocacy and the courts, including for the late installation of ADLS and the lack of timely and full communication on all things."

The town of Nantucket remains a partner with Vineyard Wind in the “Good Neighbor Agreement,” signed in August 2020, that provided cash to the town in exchange for its support of the offshore wind project and other concessions, some of which have yet to be realized. 

Nantucket Select Board chair Brooke Mohr stated unequivocally that the settlement agreement was the best deal the town could have hoped for considering the circumstances.

"We are confident that this is a really positive outcome for Nantucket," Mohr told the Current. "This agreement has no bearing on future incidents. We are not limited in any way if anything happens in the future based on this agreement."

GE Vernova had previously cited a manufacturing deviation at its plant in Gaspé, Canada, as the cause of the blade failure. Vineyard Wind is now in the process of removing more than 60 defective blades which had already been installed at the wind farm that came from the Canadian plant.

“Offshore wind may bring benefits, but it also carries risks—to ocean health, to historic landscapes, and to the economies of coastal communities like Nantucket, known worldwide as an environmental and cultural treasure,” Mohr added.

Three law firms represented the town during the negotiations over the past year that led to the settlement, including town counsel KP Law, the South Carolina-based law firm Wyche, along with its counsel for offshore wind matters, Cultural Heritage Partners, which brokered the original Good Neighbor Agreement with Vineyard Wind on behalf of the town. The litigation and dispute consulting firm Stout also advised the town on the settlement.

Those firms will split 18 percent of the settlement as compensation for representing the town, according to Mohr, or $1.89 million.

Read the full settlement agreement here

“Federal law limits localities’ influence in the design and approval of offshore wind projects, but communities have rights when it comes to safe operations of the farms," stated Werkheiser, of Cultural Heritage Partners.

After the town selects an independent third-party administrator to manage the "Community Claims Fund," that firm will be tasked with developing protocols and setting up a six-month period in which businesses and individuals that suffered losses as a result of the blade failure can "submit evidence of any costs or losses." 

Those impacts can include clean-up costs and typical business losses such as lost rental profits less tax liability "that are reasonably attributable to the turbine blade failure," the town announced.

Among those on Nantucket who were directly impacted by the Vineyard Wind blade failure was Gaven Norton, the owner of ACK Surf School at Nobadeer Beach. Norton lost a week's worth of revenue after the first debris began washing ashore, and has been waiting for nearly a year to be made whole.

"I submitted my stuff a year ago now - my QuickBooks and supporting evidence, and I thought we'll see what happens," Norton said on Friday after the settlement was announced. "The whole thing is all over the place. No one seems to have any answers. But it was definitely significant for us - a week off of work, especially when our season is 10 weeks long. It's a year later, and people are still asking questions."

ACK For Whales, the Nantucket-based non-profit that has opposed Vineyard Wind for years, panned the settlement agreement in a statement on Friday.

"We are greatly disappointed by the town’s failure to protect the interests of its residents, citizens, businesses and taxpayers by entering into a sweetheart deal with which BOTH Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova walk away scott-free," said ACK For Whales board member Amy Disibio in an email. "We believe the Town should have sued both VW and GEV over this incident. The required environmental studies have not been provided by Vineyard Wind, nor have they even communicated with the Town since February, despite their contractual 'Good Neighbor Agreement' that according to Cultural Heritage Partners obligates VW to give us that oh so important 'seat at the table'. Why the Town is still in that agreement is anyone’s guess. A $10.5 million settlement - minus the usual lawyers' fees - and a new 'agreement' really seems to betray the public trust once again. Aren’t Nantucket citizens and our ocean more important than foreign developers?"

This is a developing story that will be updated.