January 30, 2025 — Vineyard Wind 1 is once again turning wind into electricity, even as its developer works to meet a federal mandate requiring the removal of turbine blades made at the Canadian factory where the faulty blade that collapsed last summer was produced.
Company spokesman Craig Gilvarg confirmed that one turbine is back in operation, capable of producing about 13.6 megawatts when running at full capacity.
“Vineyard Wind 1 is delivering power from one turbine, which has met the project’s stringent safety and operational conditions,” he said.
Recently, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement fully lifted the suspension order it had placed on the project following the July 13 blade collapse at wind turbine generator AW-38 that sent debris crashing into the ocean. The action comes a little more than a month after the agency permitted installation of the first three turbine blades since the incident.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Jan. 17 also approved a revised construction and operations plan with conditions for Vineyard Wind 1, which will produce 800 megawatts of energy from 62 turbines when completed.
A root-cause analysis of the blade failure conducted by the manufacturer and installer, GE Vernova, found that the collapse was the result of a “manufacturing deviation” at the factory in Gaspé, Canada — specifically, failed bonding of materials. Although the bureau is continuing its own investigation, the revised plan acknowledges manufacturing errors in calling for Vineyard Wind to remove all Canadian-made blades installed on up to 22 turbine generators prior to the July 13 failure.