From Watts Up With That?
Troubled windfarm is producing less than half the promised output, sensors are repeatedly tripping offline, and it’s engaged in a legal battle with its turbine manufacturer.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Two summers ago, we began following the saga of the Vineyard Farms offshore wind project and its blade failure near Nantucket.
After one blade failed and fell into the water, the beaches were littered with sharp fiberglass shards, creating a suboptimal condition at the height of the summer tourist season. The continuing investigation into the cause of this environmental contamination incident determined that a manufacturing flaw in the blade was responsible for the failure.
Subsequently, residents of Nantucket began demanding the end of these mammoth offshore wind farms, and fishermen protested at the site of the blade failure.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared victory last month, celebrating the completion of Vineyard Wind as a shining beacon of “energy independence” that would slash electricity costs.
“Vineyard Wind is a key part of our all-of-the-above strategy to lowering energy prices,” Healey said. “Throughout one of the coldest winters in recent history, Vineyard Wind turbines powered our homes and businesses at a low price and now that price goes even lower with the activation of these contracts. Especially as President Trump is taking energy sources off the table and increasing prices with his war in Iran, we should be leaning into more American-made wind power to lower costs, create jobs, and make our country more energy independent.”
This past winter, Vineyard Wind lowered electricity prices by competing in wholesale electricity markets. In those markets, it consistently offered lower prices than other sources of electricity. This activation of the utilities’ contracts further lowers the price of electricity generated by Vineyard Wind.
However, the celebration may have been premature. Apparently, the wind farm is producing barely 300 megawatts (less than half the promised output), and sensors are repeatedly tripping offline.
In a May 1 court filing, Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller said the project’s current average output is roughly 300 megawatts, and 13 of the 62 turbines are not yet activated.
Significant remedial and repair work is needed to address “recurrent operational issues,” Vineyard Wind officials said in court documents.
The problems include sensors that repeatedly trip, causing the turbines to shut off and curtailing their performance and power generation.
Furthermore, the developer is locked in a bitter $853 million lawsuit to stop turbine-maker GE Vernova from walking away from the project, which would essentially leave it a “dormant wind farm graveyard”.
A Boston judge has affirmed his own ruling that temporarily blocks GE Renewables from exiting its contract with Vineyard Wind, compelling the subsidiary of GE Vernova to continue servicing and maintaining the wind farm southwest of Nantucket.
Judge Peter Krupp this week rejected a pair of motions from GE Renewables that asked him to reconsider his previous order and send the case to arbitration. GE Renewables, the manufacturer of the offshore wind turbines used by Vineyard Wind, has been trying to leave the project, arguing that the offshore wind company owes them $300 million.
Vineyard Wind has countered by claiming that it is actually GE Renewables that owes them $500 million stemming from the collapse of a GE-manufactured turbine blade in July of 2024, which littered Nantucket’s beaches with debris and forced the wind farm to temporarily shut down while the cause of the break was identified. Ultimately, more than 60 blades had to be replaced. Vineyard Wind has also said that GE Renewables’ exit would endanger the very existence of the project, possibly leaving behind a “dormant wind farm graveyard”. So far, the courts have sided with Vineyard Wind.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts’ latest offshore wind procurement round has been delayed yet again, pushing the contract completion deadline to January 29, 2027, and leaving the process roughly two and a half years behind schedule.
Massachusetts selected 2,678 megawatts of offshore wind power spread across three projects in September 2024, kicking off contract talks that are expected to result in higher prices for power than past projects. During the repeated delays, one of the selected projects has removed itself from consideration and another raised the potential for a multi-year delay.
Officials say contract negotiations are still ongoing and are expected to result in higher power prices than in previous rounds, extending uncertainty for developers, ratepayers, and the region’s climate and energy planning.
It appears that when you build a $4.5 billion monument to green ideology on the Massachusetts coast, break a 351-foot turbine blade and dump 57 tons of fiberglass debris onto Nantucket’s beaches, then run out of money to pay the contractor who installed your turbines, the laws of physics and finance remain very strongly in place.
Here’s hoping the good people of the region have enough energy for both “heat domes” and the winter season.
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