Vineyard Wind Factory Fire Harbinger Of Offshore Blade Disaster

GE Vernova is providing Vineyard Wind Company with 62 GE offshore wind turbines off the shores of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Each turbine is 13 megawatts with newly developed 107-meter hybrid blades (351 feet).   
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150 blades were manufactured at the LM Wind Company in Gaspee, Quebec. General Electric owns LM Wind. 
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The first completed blades left the plant on May 10, 2023. Production of 25 blades started in December 2022. According to news reports the manufacture time is around two blades per month.  
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Incident # 1 Fire 
Visible for miles a fire broke out the next night at the LM Wind Plant on May 11, 2023. The protection system was not triggered. It's not clear if there was any GE investigation following the blaze. 
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Incident # 2 Blade Break
By June 2024 Vineyard Wind had 10 GE Vernova turbines generating power off Nantucket. On July 13, 2024, a blade broke off one of the wind turbines. The result is around 50 tons of microplastics, fiberglass, and balsa wood in the ocean environment. Material is still washing up on the beaches of Nantucket. 
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Incident # 3 Investigation Quality Control 
GE Vernova this time investigated the LM Wind Company finding they took shortcuts on quality control around ten percent of the blades were defective. 
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The US Bureau of Safety and Enforcement is conducting its investigation. It's unknown if they are looking as far back as the fire incident at the LM Wind Plant.  
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# Note
A prototype blade was tested and certified at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, clearing the way to produce 150 blades in Canada. The 351-foot blade did not fit in the test site, necessitating cutting into two parts. 
1. No torsion test was done on the entire blade.
2. No field test was done for one year in a rough ocean environment.  
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Comment by Willem Post on December 1, 2024 at 9:11am

Frank,

Please replace your point 2 with this verbiage

2. During operation, a blade sees various wind speeds as it scribes an 800-ft circle.

Wind speeds are much higher near the top than near the bottom of the circle.

The wind speeds significantly vary from side to side of the circle.

Such varying winds produce repeating, dynamic torsional effects on the blade.

The integrity of an experimental blade design can only be determined under real-life testing, on a mast, in the North Sea, for at least a year, to ensure the blade sees all weather conditions.

 

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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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