Vineyard Wind rotor blade comes loose and leaves structure hanging

A broken rotor blade from an offshore wind farm that washed debris into the water off the coast of Nantucket in the US state of Massachusetts over the weekend and briefly closed beaches broke away from the tower on Thursday, according to the developer.

Vineyard Wind said a “significant portion” of the GE Vernova’s 350-foot-long rotor blade broke off Thursday morning, although ship crews worked through the night to repair the dangling blade despite difficult weather.

“A fleet of vessels remains at sea to manage the situation and remove large amounts of debris,” the company said in a statement. “We have deployed additional crews to the island of Nantucket as we anticipate that more debris may wash ashore tonight and tomorrow.”

On Thursday, it was still unclear what had caused the fiberglass blade to break and how quickly the company could fix the incident. The turbine was in the commissioning phase and was still being tested.