The failure of a massive wind turbine blade recently installed off the coast of Cape Cod and Nantucket, in the United States, and manufactured at LM Wind Power’s plant in Gaspé, has forced GE Vernova, owner of LM Wind Power, to halt delivery of the blades and inspect all those already installed on dozens of large offshore wind turbines.
The shutdown and extensive inspection were confirmed by GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik during the company’s recent quarterly earnings call, which has sales of US$30 billion. As its name suggests, GE Vernova is the main power generation project subsidiary within industrial giant GE.
“We will use our existing data and inspect all the blades we have manufactured for offshore wind [en mer] in this factory in Gaspé, Canada, where the material failure occurred [de fabrication des grandes pales] “, Strazik said during the analyst and investor conference call.
We have manufactured about 150 of these blades. [pour l’éolien en mer]which gives you an indication and context of the inspection work to be carried out.
GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik on the analyst and investor conference call
In an interview with Bloomberg News, GE CEO Vernova added that they “should have identified this material failure before shipping the blade” from the Gaspé plant, which has been in production since 2006.
According to Mr. Strazik, “the blade left the factory with a deficiency in the glue” that binds the composite materials that make up the main structure of wind turbine blades.
Most of these 100-meter-long blades manufactured at the Gaspé plant were installed at the Vineyard Wind complex – the largest in the United States to date – located off the very wealthy island of Nantucket, near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY LM WIND POWER
A wind turbine blade leaving the LM Wind Power factory in Gaspé, before being loaded onto a cargo ship bound for an offshore wind farm in the United States.
Construction of GE Vernova’s Vineyard Wind has been on hold for two weeks after one of three massive blades on a wind turbine that had just been put into operation broke and fell.
Silence in Gaspé
Meanwhile, at the LM Wind Power plant in Gaspé, which employs more than 500 people, its local managers remain silent on the impact of this delivery stoppage and this major inspection on the continuity of the plant’s activities.
Response to requests for information from The Press instead came from a spokesperson at GE Vernova’s headquarters in Cambridge, near Boston, Massachusetts.
“Our preliminary investigation into the incident indicates that the affected blade suffered a manufacturing defect – in this case, an insufficient adhesive bond – that the quality assurance program should have identified. [à l’usine de Gaspé] ” writes Tim Brown, senior public relations officer at GE Vernova, in an email exchange with The Press.
Our investigation is ongoing and we are working urgently to thoroughly review our offshore wind blade manufacturing and quality assurance program. We have work to do, but we are confident in our ability to implement corrective actions and move forward.
Tim Brown, Senior Public Relations Officer at GE Vernova
“We don’t have any further details to share at this time,” he concluded.
In the Gaspé region, where the LM Wind Power plant and its employees have a considerable socio-economic impact, there does not seem to be any concern about the consequences of this production failure on the plant’s level of activity.
“It’s the largest employer in the region. And from what we’re told, the Gaspé plant is one of the most efficient in the entire LM Wind Power company,” says Marie-Claude Brière, general manager of the Chambre de commerce de La Côte-de-Gaspé, in a telephone conversation with The Press.
“This is why we are always cautious before commenting on what is happening at the LM Wind plant based on partial and imprecise information, and without referring to the plant’s management.”
A criticized sector
Still, this failure comes at a somewhat awkward time for LM Wind Power and GE Vernova.
PHOTO WORLDVIEW FILMS, FROM VINEYARD WIND WEBSITE
Another wind turbine under construction at the Vineyard Wind complex
It has revived doubts about the prospects for the U.S. offshore wind industry, which is still emerging and struggling with rising interest rates and high construction cost inflation due to persistent problems in supply chains for specialized goods and services.
In addition, the failure of the Vineyard Wind complex has rekindled opposition to such large offshore wind projects among residents and vacationers in coastal regions of the United States.
These difficulties have already led to the cancellation of major projects planned off the coast of New Jersey, on the American east coast.
As a result of these cancellations, LM Wind Power had already decided to refocus production at the Gaspé plant on smaller blades (45 meters long instead of 100 meters) for wind turbines located in land-based complexes in the United States and Canada.
According to the CEO of GE Vernova, this industrial refocusing at the Gaspé plant was interrupted in order to carry out a review of its manufacturing processes and an inspection of the blades already delivered and installed on wind turbines.