CMP Parent Company’s Offshore Wind Turbine Creates Environmental Disaster Off New England Coast

By Seamus Othot
July 19, 2024

An offshore wind turbine project operated by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners broke apart this week, scattering debris throughout Massachusetts’ coastal waters, with much of the flotsam washing up on Nantucket beaches.

Since the turbine experienced a catastrophic malfunction — for reasons that are not yet clear — social media has been inundated with pictures and videos of beachgoers and government employees picking up trash bags and dumpsters full of debris.

The turbine in question is owned by Vineyard Wind US, a joint project of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners of Denmark and Avangrid, the parent company of Central Maine Power (CMP). The turbine itself was manufactured by GE Vernova, which has experienced similar failures in the past with their offshore wind projects.

On Wednesday, Wineyard Wind CEO Klaus Skoust Møller attended a Nantucket select board meeting hoping to assuage locals concerns about the industrial wind turbine debris now polluting miles of beach and much of the coastal waters.

Møller apologized to the residents at the meeting and assured them that none of the debris was toxic in nature, but the locals weren’t appeased.

“We were always told we were going to be able to fish around these things, that they weren’t going to affect our livelihood,” charter boat captain and former Select Board member Bob DeCosta said, according to a report in the Nantucket Current.

“I would like to see a representative from the federal government and they should treat this like an aircraft incident…none of these turbines should be allowed to turn a blade…until they find out exactly what happened.”

Following the destruction of the turbine, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a subdivision of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is itself a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, ordered Vineyard Wind to cease operations at all of its turbine sites.

“Following the July 13, 2024, blade failure incident at Vineyard Wind, BSEE has issued a Suspension Order to Vineyard Wind to cease power production from all its wind turbine generators until it can be determined whether the blade failure affects any other VW turbines,” the agency said.

“The Suspension Order suspends power production on the lease area and suspends installation of new wind turbine generator construction: Those operations will remain shut down until the suspension is lifted. BSEE has also issued a Preservation Order to safeguard any evidence that may be relevant to determining the cause of the incident,” the agency said.

Article continues at https://www.themainewire.com/2024/07/cmp-parent-companys-offshore-w...

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