July 16 (Reuters) – The Winery Wind offshore wind venture off the coast of Massachusetts is shut down till additional discover whereas authorities examine a turbine blade failure that triggered particles to scrub up on seashores, a federal company mentioned on Tuesday.
The U.S. Bureau of Security and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) mentioned it was working intently with Winery Wind to find out the reason for the incident, which left probably harmful particles on seashores on the island of Nantucket.
“There have been no accidents reported, however operations are shut down till additional discover,” a BSEE spokesperson mentioned in an emailed assertion.
The incident is a blow to each Winery Wind, the primary main U.S. offshore wind farm, and the nation’s budding offshore wind business. The sector is considered essential to assembly President Joe Biden’s local weather change targets however has been struggling with hovering prices and delays.
Winery Wind mentioned the turbine’s producer, GE, would analyze the foundation explanation for the incident. The turbine was in its commissioning part and was nonetheless present process testing, based on firm spokesperson Craig Gilvarg.
GE Vernova mentioned the investigation was progressing.
“Security is a high precedence at GE Vernova,” an organization spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
Simply final month, Winery Wind introduced that it had put in 21 of the venture’s anticipated 62 generators, and that 10 have been producing energy. It’s anticipated to provide sufficient electrical energy to energy 400,000 houses as soon as it’s totally operational.
The turbine blade broke on Saturday, and on Tuesday authorities mentioned that they had closed seashores on the south shore of Nantucket Island because of particles washing ashore, based on a press release on the City of Nantucket website.
“In some areas, important sharp particles has been noticed floating within the water and is commonly hidden beneath the floor. Small fragments alongside the shoreline can pose a substantial hazard to swimmers and beachgoers,” the assertion mentioned.
The incident got here in the course of the busy summer season vacationer season, when the island’s inhabitants swells to 80,000 from its common 14,000.
Winery Wind is owned by Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Companions and Avangrid AGR.N, the U.S. arm of Spanish utility Iberdrola IBE.MC.
(Reporting by Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Anjana Anil in Bengaluru; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman and Christian Schmollinger)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024.
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