Broken Vineyard Wind turbine blade could fall into ocean off Massachusetts "soon," company says

BOSTON - More pieces of a broken wind turbine off the coast of Massachusetts are falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

The CEO of Vineyard Wind was at Nantucket's Select Board meeting Wednesday evening, apologizing and answering questions about the initial break when he suddenly had to leave because the situation is getting worse. The broken turbine blade could fall into the sea "soon," the company said.

The U.S. Coast Guard said in a statement Thursday that they had received a report of "a piece of debris, 300-feet in length" in the ocean. They warned all mariners in the area off Nantucket to "use extreme caution" when passing through.

Broken wind turbine

The meeting Wednesday night was the first chance for residents of the island to speak to Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller about the turbine blade failure and clean up.

"Who would have expected this to fail so quickly?" one resident said. 

"We've got a bunch of suits here trying to cover their tracks," said another resident.

Vineyard Wind is leading the first in the nation commercial wind farm being developed just 15 miles south of Nantucket. Earlier this year, they celebrated the first production of power from the turbines. There are roughly a dozen installed, but the company is planning to put in a total of 62 turbines by the end of the project. Each blade is longer than a football field and weighs more than 70 tons. 

On Saturday, part of a blade from a turbine broke and sent debris into the ocean.  That debris started washing ashore Monday. Nantucket closed several beaches to the south while they cleaned up the fiberglass shards.  

During Wednesday night's meeting, town leaders grilled Moeller about the delay in notification.

"We didn't hear anything for 48 hours," said select board member Brooke Mohr. "We're asking questions that you don't have answers for. I don't want to wait a week to get a bunch of answers."

"This is a very serious situation. I am really truly sorry that this impacted your beautiful beaches here." Moeller told the select board and residents.

Wind turbine blade "could detach soon"

Two hours into the meeting, Moeller suddenly left, after telling everyone he had just received an update on the "integrity of the blade."

A representative for the company later returned to the meeting and said the remaining portion of the blade was still intact and attached to the turbine, but they believe "there is an increased possibility it could detach soon."

"We have mobilized our response team and have also witnessed new debris enter the water," the spokeswoman for Vineyard Wind told the audience.

It's still not clear what caused the blade to break. A boom had been sent to the site and the company said they were working to deploy it.  

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• Nantucket News