Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners have reported that a GE Vernova Haliade-X turbine blade has been damaged at the under-construction 800MW Vineyard Wind project off the US north-east coast.
The developers said the component “experienced damage” on Saturday night.
“No personnel or third parties were in the vicinity of the turbine at the time, and all employees of Vineyard Wind and its contractors are safe and secure,” they added.
A safety permitter is in place around the affected unit and manufacturer GE Vernova is conducting a root cause analysis, they said.
“As that analysis takes place, Vineyard Wind will continue working with federal, state, and local stakeholders to ensure the health and safety of its workforce, mariners, and the environment.”
GE Vernova said a turbine suffered “an isolated blade event”.
“GE Vernova’s Wind Fleet Performance Management team have initiated our investigation protocols into the event in coordination with our customer,” a spokesperson said.
Turbine installation at the project has been underway since last year, with first power achieved in January.
This is the second blade incident to hit a GE Vernova offshore turbine this year, following a failure on a Haliade-X unit at the 1.2GW Dogger Bank project off east England, as revealed by subscriber-only reNEWS on 9 May.
A blade that had previously been installed crumpled several metres away from the turbine hub, leaving the majority of the component dangling backwards over the nacelle. No one was injured.
An investigation found an issue with the turbine’s lifting device that occurred during the installation of the first blade at the site and ultimately led to the failure, according to sources.
GE Vernova told reNEWS at the time it was an “isolated blade event”.