Another turbine blade failure at an offshore wind farm, this time in the U.K.’s North Sea at the Dogger Bank project, raised questions about whether these problems could have been prevented had the structures’ manufacturers done things differently. This latest incident comes just over a month after a similar occurrence off the coast of Massachusetts, with both cases involving blades made by GE Vernova.
Edgar Gunter, a former NASA engineer, examined the Massachusetts incident closely. While GE has said the problem at Vineyard Wind was due to a “manufacturing deviation,” Gunter attributed the issue to the materials used to make the blade.
According to Gunter, the decision not to utilize carbon fiber, a material 15 times more expensive but also 15 times stronger than the fiberglass GE employed, may have compromised the blade’s structural integrity.
GE maintained that the issues at Vineyard Wind are unrelated to an earlier incident in May at the same U.K. offshore wind farm, which has been billed as the largest in the world. That earlier problem, the company stated, was due to a unique installation error that bears no resemblance to the Massachusetts failure.
The recent U.K. incident, however, created speculation over the potential that broader systemic issues are in play for GE. This is particularly relevant given that the company has faced other turbine blade issues at its onshore wind farms in Germany, Lithuania and Sweden over the past two years.
