Massachusetts Offshore Wind Blade Testing Flaw

Massachusetts has never had a successful wind turbine program.
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By 2007 a former Massachusetts state legislature representative from East Freetown had sold residential wind turbines using renewable energy credits to residents across the state. Parts of the wind turbines were substituted with more inexpensive parts resulting in failures during mild wind storms. The former state representative was fined by the Massachusetts Attorney General and moved to Hawaii. Residents lost faith in the wind and switched to solar.  
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From 2005 to 2007 state and local officials proposed placing larger than residential wind turbines called 600 Kilowatt turbines in local towns which included studies to justify the investment. The state adopted an agenda of 2000 megawatts of wind power by 2020. 
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By 2009 local and state officials changed 600 Kilowatt plans substituting much larger commercial megawatt wind turbines and placing them in residential neighborhoods. Officials ignored noise studies affecting neighbors from Boone, North Carolina in 1985. The result was years of lawsuits over noise and shadow flicker. Falmouth was the first town to remove megawatt turbines in 2022. 
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Today there are less than 100 megawatts of land-based wind turbines in Massachusetts a complete failure. 
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Massachusetts today has a new climate goal to be reached by 2025. Federal and state officials are approving 12 to 14-megawatt wind turbines off Nantucket with record-length blades. 
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The newly developed blades used for the Nantucket project are hybrid-type blades that are easy to build and less expensive. They use less carbon fiber than other manufacturers use. They also needed to be tested before use. 
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The new offshore wind blades are 107 meters ( 350 feet ). In 2019 when the first blades were produced in Cherbourg France there was nowhere in the world to test blades this long. The only place was the Massachusetts semi-quasi-state agency in Charlestown, Massachusetts only certified to test 90-meter blades ( 300 feet ). 
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By 2020 a prototype 107M blade was brought from France to test in the 90M test site. State officials and engineers believe it or not cut the newly developed hybrid blade into two parts to get it into the test site. Figures were somehow extrapolated to certify the newly developed hybrid blade to qualify for building 150 blades in Canada. 
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The 107-meter (350-foot) blade was never tested for torsion as one piece or a model in any storm or adverse weather situation. The 350-foot blades travel in a circle over 700 feet. The wind speed at the top of the circle could be much higher than at the bottom causing the blades to bend far enough to crack and break. 
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To some, the result of a blade cracks around 50 feet from the rotor of the Nantucket wind turbine has the look of classic torsional fatigue.
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On June 5, 2024, the Cherbourg, France wind turbine factory announced problems with the mold to manufacture the 107-meter blades. 
On June 13, 2024, a blade failed at the Nantucket wind project and two others at Dogger Bank.  
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During the 2024 summer around 50 blades were installed at Dogger Bank and Nantucket with 3 blades failing in 6 months giving an unexceptable failure rate of around 6 percent per year.  
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The future of reducing carbon and fossil fuels and reaching renewable energy goals is Advanced Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). These are small safe nuclear options that generate power 24/7. 
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SMRs are capable of burning a lot of nuclear waste sitting at old closed sites.
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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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