A GE Venova Haliade turbine suffered a blade failure Aug. 22 on the Dogger Bank A offshore wind project in the North Sea, about six weeks after a fractured blade shut down the Vineyard Wind project off southern New England.
The Dogger Bank incident is the second blade failure on that project after one in May. All three involve Haliade 13-megawatt generators, marketed by GE Vernova as an industry standard as wind developers go big in a quest for efficiency.
“We are aware of a blade failure which occurred this morning on an installed turbine at Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm, which is currently under construction,” developers said in a brief statement. “We are working closely with the turbine manufacturer, GE Vernova, which has initiated an investigation into the cause of the incident.”
The Dogger Bank project – named for a sandbank off the coast of Yorkshire in the United Kingdom – is a joint venture between Equinor and SSE Renewables. After the Vineyard Wind blade break, GE Venova officials said their analysis showed a manufacturing defect was the root cause.
Those conclusions are drawing close scrutiny, as wind power developers and turbine manufacturers have been taking a bigger-is-better approach.
News of the Dogger Bank incident came as New England fishermen and supporters organized for a protest boat parade Sunday at Vineyard Wind’s damaged AW38 turbine southwest of Nantucket, Mass. The action comes as a cleanup of fiberglass and plastic foam blade fragments continue, and developers and the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement still assess how one of its 351’ rotor blades splintered.
