‘Sharp Fiberglass Shards’ from Broken Vineyard Wind Turbine Blade Closes Nantucket Beaches

Will wind junk washing up along the East Coast become the new norm?

Green pieces of fiberglass washed up on Nantucket’s south shore beaches Tuesday morning after a turbine blade from Vineyard Wind self-destructed on Saturday. Photo from Nantucket Current X post.

What happens when a wind turbine blade, a gigantic piece of fiberglass, steel, and plastic – around the same length as a football field – breaks apart?

How about floating debris of “green foam board” and pieces of fiberglass that in the early a.m. hours of July 16 started appearing on the south shore beaches of Nantucket Island.

As reported by WBUR, “On Tuesday morning, the Nantucket Harbormaster announced that all beaches on the south shore of the island are closed to swimming ‘due to large floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards.’”

The fiberglass and other materials originated from one of the enormous turbine blades at Vineyard Wind, which self-destructed on Saturday. As reported by the company, a joint venture between Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Avangrid Renewables, LLC, “pieces of fiberglass” were “sent into the water.”

“The water is closed to swimming on all south shore beaches, due to large floating debris and sharp fiberglass shards,” said Nantucket Harbormaster Sheila Lucey. Photo from the Nantucket Current.

The incident, referred to as an “isolated blade event” by GE Vernova, the blade manufacturer, comes as enormous steel monopiles are being driven into the seabed for the eventual operation of 62 offshore turbines 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. According to the Vineyard Gazette, only 10 of those were operational when one of them mysteriously came apart.

Vineyard Wind is just one project. Over two-and-a-half million acres of seabed are currently leased out by the United States to a variety of companies (mostly foreign) planning to blanket the East Coast seaboard with as many as 1,500 of these mammoth structures. More leases will be auctioned off in August.

Will wind junk due to “blade failure” washing up on East Coast beaches become the new norm? And will it be coming to (and closing) a beach near you?

Map showing location of the Vineyard Wind lease area, comprising just 166,886 acres of the over two-and-a-half million acres of seabed currently leased out by the U.S. government for the construction of offshore wind. More auctions are in the works.