When the Vineyard Wind turbine blade south of the Island doubled over and eventually broke off into the ocean about two weeks ago, there were universal calls to find out what happened to ensure the catastrophe is never repeated.
Agreement on how offshore wind energy should move forward ends just about there.
While the head of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), some Island fishermen and many irate Nantucketers are calling for a complete halt to the construction of offshore wind energy off the Massachusetts coast, others maintain that the nascent industry is essential in the fight against climate change.
In the wake of the July 13 blade break, state officials, conservation groups and the Island’s state senator have all said that offshore wind energy needs to continue in a responsible manner, and hoped that the very public failure of the Vineyard Wind turbine would result in stronger guardrails in the future.
Debris has been found across Nantucket's south shore. — Courtesy of Town of Nantucket
“The offshore wind industry is a critical component of Massachusetts’ economy and the country’s transition to clean, affordable energy,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement to the Gazette. “It is essential that we gain a full understanding of what happened here and how it can be prevented in the future.”
The split highlights how divisive the development of offshore wind energy can be on Martha’s Vineyard and in coastal communities throughout New England.
Vineyard Wind, which planned to have 62 turbines in an area starting about 14 miles to the Vineyard’s south, was the first commercial-scale project to receive its permitting and was held up as a pioneer across the east coast. Several projects continued in its wake and are now under construction, while Vineyard Wind is halted during the ongoing federal investigation.
Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, the chair of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) tribal council, felt the whole process was moving too fast, leading to this kind of failure.
In a letter to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency that is investigating Vineyard Wind, Ms. Andrews-Maltais called for a moratorium on all offshore wind energy projects across the country until every turbine blade can be inspected thoroughly and more testing is done to understand the fallout.
“They should be shutting down every single offshore wind project until they know what is going on,” she said. “We warned them of these potential catastrophic failures.”
John Osmers, a Vineyard fisherman, said Islanders’ concerns about pollution and harm to the environment were ignored during the permitting process and he worried about the potential harm to the ecosystem.
“They are rushing these things in so fast that they aren’t making sure they are done right,” he said.
This week, blade manufacturer GE Vernova said the blade had a defect that wasn’t caught during quality assurance inspections and it would reinspect all of its other blades.
Eric Hines, the director of Tufts University’s offshore wind energy graduate program, said properly produced blades should be strong and flexible, able to bend tens of meters without breaking.
“This is not the way the blades are supposed to behave,” he said. “These are built to take hurricane force loads.”
A drone's view of the broke turbine. — Arcadia US
The failure comes at a turbulent time for the industry. Massachusetts is in the process of taking new bids for energy contracts after previous agreements became too costly for projects to proceed. Legal appeals also continue to be lobbed at companies looking to build.
For one of the country’s leading projects to have this large of an issue early on in construction was a black eye for the industry, but Mr. Hines felt it could help offshore wind be more responsible in the long-term.
“The very public nature of this failure will hopefully serve to galvanize the industry to say this is serious. There’s a lot at stake and we have zero tolerance for something like this,” he said.
At public meetings, Nantucketers have raised concerns about the harm to wildlife after styrofoam and fiberglass poured into the ocean from the broken turbine. One woman at the Nantucket select board meeting Wednesday said that anyone involved in the project had “blood on their hands.”
The critically endangered North Atlantic right whale is known to migrate through the area and concerns were raised about the danger posed to the species. But one of the preeminent local whale research organizations stood by offshore wind this week.
Rich Delaney, the executive director of the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, hoped to never see another turbine blade fall into the ocean, but didn’t think this was the time to abandon the industry.
In his eyes, offshore wind energy at a large scale is critical and one of the major ways Massachusetts can battle climate change. Without cuts to emissions, rising temperatures and changing seas pose a far greater threat to the species than the fallen turbine blade and debris, he said.
“We have been saying for a long time that the two most serious threats to right whales and the right whale population have been ship strikes and getting entangled, usually in fishing gear,” Mr. Delaney said. “But in reality, the existential threat is climate change.”
Cleanup efforts continue on the sister island. — Courtesy of Town of Nantucket
Mr. Delaney said that it should be expected that some mistakes will happen, and everything possible should be done to root it out.
“It is a new industry and it may have to go through a little bit of a learning curve,” he said. “But we need it for sure.”
Other prominent conservation groups echoed similar sentiments. The Environmental League of Massachusetts, Conservation Law Foundation and the Sierra Club all supported responsible offshore wind and a shift away from fossil fuels.
“It is important that Vineyard Wind take responsibility for this incident and prevent future accidents,” said Brad Campbell, the president of the Conservation Law Foundation. “But it’s also important for the public to understand that wind farms have been safely constructed around the world with none of the marine disasters — explosions, catastrophic oil spills — and sacrifice of human safety associated with the fossil fuels they are replacing.”
Julian Cyr, the Vineyard and Nantucket’s state senator, said the malfunction and the initial lack of communication (it took Vineyard Wind about two days to notify Nantucket) was alarming.
“Why did it take until Monday afternoon to be notified of an event on Saturday evening,” he said.
Mr. Cyr said he’s been working with Nantucket to ensure that the town is reimbursed for all of its cleanup efforts after shards of fiberglass showed up on the island’s shores and he wanted more clarity about the federal response to the incident.
But Mr. Cyr still believes in offshore wind power and said it has had strong support on both sides of the aisle on Beacon Hill.
“That bipartisan commitment is going to continue, notwithstanding an alarming and preventable incident,” he said.
