August 13, 2024 — A month after a football field-sized blade on Vineyard Wind turbine AW-38 folded over and began breaking apart into the ocean, the company and blade manufacturer GE Vernova are continuing work to remove its remnants and to respond to floating and washed-up debris around the region — including the Islands and Cape Cod.
Over the weekend, an outline of the blade incident report and action plan was also released.
The latest detachment of blade portions still hanging from the turbine occurred on Sunday morning, and Nantucket officials issued an advisory Sunday night about the potential for more debris coming ashore there, depending on wind direction.
Sunday’s “controlled detachment” followed a series of adjustments to the blade’s position completed at the end of last week, which, in combination with winds from the remnants of Hurricane Debby, “led to the safe separation of the sections below the root of the blade,” according to Nantucket officials.