The mid-July failure of a 350-foot offshore wind blade off the coast of Massachusetts was caused by a “manufacturing deviation” at a factory in Canada, according to Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Vernova (NYSE: GEV), maker of the defective component.
“We have no indications of an engineering design flaw — that’s important at the beginning,” Strazik told analysts on a Wednesday morning call. “We have identified a material deviation or manufacturing deviation in one of our factories that through the inspection or quality-assurance process, we should have identified.”
A company spokesperson later clarified that the manufacturing defect had to do with “insufficient bonding.”
The failure happened at Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine offshore project that was under construction until all activity was shut down mid-month by the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is conducting an investigation into the incident.
GE Vernova’s 13-megawatt Haliade-X turbines — the largest in the world — were chosen for the 62-turbine Vineyard Wind by project developers Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Parters.
The 800-megawatt project has contracts in place to sell electricity to Massachusetts utilities.
An initial section of the 350-foot, 57-ton blade broke on July 13. A second section tumbled into the ocean days later. Nobody was hurt. But large amounts of fiberglass, carbon fiber and styrofoam detritus littered the seas and have been washing up on the pristine beaches of Nantucket island, triggering community outrage.
GE Vernova is conducting a “root cause analysis” into the blade failure. It is re-inspecting all 150 offshore wind blades made at its factory in Gaspee, Canada, in a “prudent, thorough process” using “nondestructive” methods akin to ultrasound, Strazik said on the call.
The CEO declined to provide a timeline for completing that “root cause” report. But the company did share a preliminary, 12-page environmental report with the Town of Nantucket, which is considering litigation.
The CEO declined to provide a timeline for completing that “root cause” report.
“We have work to do, but at a high degree of confidence that we can do this,” he said. “And we’ll do it in support of both the customer and the agency, and move forward from there.”
Strazik said a previous GE Vernova offshore wind blade failure at Dogger Bank, a project under construction in the United Kingdom, was not related. He said the Dogger Bank failure was caused by an installation error, and not a manufacturing problem. Work on that project continues.
Vernova’s profits buoyed by gas turbines and grid equipment; dragged by wind
GE Vernova, a spinoff of the former General Electric Co., reported strong second-quarter earnings Wednesday with net income of $1.3 billion. The results were buoyed by the company’s high-margin, fast-growing power and electrification business units.
The company’s wind segment reported a $117 million loss, due in part to the cancellation of three New York offshore projects that had planned to use a line of GE Vernova turbines that never materialized.
Strazik said he expects GE Vernova’s onshore and offshore wind segment to be profitable in 2025 as it moves through a large order backlog. The long-term prospects for wind are good, he said, as the technology “should play a critical role in the energy transition.”
In the meantime, he said, wind-customer headwinds include long grid connection queues in the Northeast and the persistence of high interest rates.
Moving forward, GE Vernova will be “highly selective” in executing offshore wind orders, with a focus on achieving “substantially higher pricing discipline and commercial terms,” the CEO said.