Installation resumes after turbine blade incident
Tower and nacelle installation has resumed at the Vineyard offshore wind farm following a hold-up caused by a broken wind turbine blade, the owner has said.
The wind farm, 14 miles from Martha’s Vineyard on the coast of Massachusetts, is owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid, and last month installation was called off when a turbine blade crashed into the sea. Debris washed up on beaches and sank to the seabed.
Helicopters and beach combers were called on by the Nantucket Harbormaster to recover debris from the blade, made by GE Vernova, and now an order has been issued to allow installation activities to go ahead.
“The updated Order issued by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reflects the unity of effort, extensive planning, independent third-party validation, and relentless focus on safety that went into developing our action plan to secure the remainder of the damaged blade and get this critical project back on track,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus S. Møller.
“As we take these important steps to resume installation activities, starting with towers and nacelles during GE Vernova’s ongoing blade inspection process, the safety of personnel and the environment remains our highest priority.”
DEME’s 132m x 46m jack-up vessel Sea Installer, which has a 1,600t crane, is now in Massachusetts to carry out the installation work.
DEME’s Orion is installing the foundations of the wind turbines, of which there will ultimately be 62 at the site, delivering 806MW. Five turbines are already operating.
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