(BEACH HAVEN, N.J.) — NEWS: Amid numerous recent instances of wind-turbine failures in the U.S. and around the world, the New Jersey citizen’s group Save LBI today called for an immediate and full public disclosure of all data related to the design, manufacture, maintenance, and failure rates for the components of the 200 wind turbines Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind plans to erect off the coast of southern Long Beach Island (LBI), Brigantine, and Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is also calling on the NJ Board of Public Utilities (NJ BPU) not to make any project-enabling new subsidy award unless and until that information is provided.
The Vestas V236-15.0 MW turbine contracted for use by the Atlantic Shores South project is an unproven, first-of-its-kind design that stands 1,048 feet tall – three times the height of the Statue of Liberty – making it one of the tallest wind turbines in the world. It has three massive blades, each longer than a football field, which translates into 600 spinning behemoths in the Atlantic Shores South (OCS-A 0499) project area, the closest of which would be only 8.7 miles from shore, closer than anywhere else in the world.
Atlantic Shores should provide full, up-front disclosure on a number of issues, including:
1. Technical details and Material Safety Data Sheets on all materials used in turbine manufacture.
2. A discussion of the hazards associated with each material, including epoxies used for bonding.
3. Failure rates and the potential consequences of turbine blade and other component failures impacting the marine environment, local food chain, and human life.
4. Protocols for mitigating the environmental impact of turbine failures.
5. Data on the structural integrity of the wind turbines (including the blades, towers, and other key components) as to their ability to withstand hurricanes, nor’easters, or other major storm events. (Project approvals have been granted even though a study by the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC) commissioned by the NJ Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has yet to be completed.)
In the wake of the blade failure at the Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Nantucket in July, Dr. Robert Stern, president of Save LBI, sent two letters to Atlantic Shores CEO Joris Veldhoven inviting Atlantic Shores to participate in a panel discussion at the LBI Foundation of the Arts & Sciences. Both were ignored, revealing a shocking level of arrogance and disrespect for a community that is justifiably concerned.
A Call for Transparency Amid the Rush to Build Ever-Larger Wind Turbines
Save LBI’s call for corporate and State Agency transparency follows a string of at least eight catastrophic offshore and onshore wind-turbine failures between April and November of 2024. The failures spanned three different turbine suppliers – Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, and GE Vernova – and involved not only collapsing blades but entire turbine structures toppling over [*notes 1-8]. Half of these failures involved Vestas turbines, causing great concern over the integrity of the colossal blades and supporting structures Atlantic Shores is planning to locate near New Jersey beaches [*note 9].
According to a 2023 report in Maintworld, a magazine for maintenance and asset management professionals, “turbine failures are on the uptick across the world…The instances are part of a rash of full collapses. A recent report says production issues may be to blame for the mysterious increase in failures [*note 10].”
In a May 2023 report entitled “Vertical Limit: When is bigger not better in offshore wind’s race to scale?” GCube Insurance, an underwriter for renewable energy projects, reviewed 10 years of claims data and found “offshore wind’s risk landscape has significantly shifted, as manufacturers push to develop bigger machines…Over the past five years, the race to scale turbine technologies has seen the leap from 8 megawatt (MW) to 18 MW turbines occurring in a fraction of the time it took to go from 3 MW to 8 MW. While this is a fantastic technological achievement, such rapid commercialization of ‘prototypical’ technologies is now leading to a concerning number of losses, and subsequently piling financial pressure on manufacturers, the supply chain, and the insurance market, according to GCube.” [*note 11]
Save LBI’s demand for accountability also comes amid revelations of a quality-control-data falsification scheme at a blade manufacturing facility in Canada [*note 12], and concern that such misrepresentations could be an industry-wide problem. “Our sources indicate that [falsifying data] is a widespread practice in the industry,” according to a Radio Gaspésie report [*note 13].
NJ: The De Facto Test-Bed for Super-Sized Wind Turbines
Atlantic Shores will be among the first to deploy the “super-sized” Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbine, which has never been tested in the harsh marine environment it will inhabit. Instead, testing was done on a land-based prototype turbine at the Østerild National test center in Denmark. New Jersey will, in effect, become a real-world Guinea pig for these newly designed gargantuan turbines.
In a series of videos on vestas.com, company executives boast how Vestas is “…leading the way into this new super-sized segment of wind turbines” and “…entering into some unprecedented territory on many of the manufacturing processes that we employ for building the blade [emphasis added]. We need to scale up renewables fast and the V236 15.0 megawatt is there to do just that. [*note 14].”
The structural integrity of the new “super-sized” blades is of particular concern to Save LBI and local communities because they are primarily made of a fiberglass composite similar to the material used in the GE Vernova Haliade-X blade [*note 15], which spontaneously collapsed while undergoing testing at the Vineyard Wind project. The blade failure sent countless shards of fiberglass and pieces of foam into the ocean, causing beach closures during the height of tourist season and putting marine life and the local food chain at risk.
“The Vineyard Wind disaster and the many others like it are wake-up calls that raise serious concerns about the structural integrity of wind turbines and the long-term impact of such failures on the environment – the effects of which are still being felt in Nantucket four months later [*note 16],” Dr. Stern said. “Even some proponents of offshore wind are now questioning whether the obvious risks are worth the purported benefits. Is this what those of us who live in the shadow of Atlantic Shores South have to look forward to?”
“It’s past time for NJ BPU staff and Atlantic Shores to directly engage and disclose the full impact of this ominous offshore wind project to the local communities that will be directly affected by it before any further work or decision-making proceeds,” he concluded.
About Save LBI
Save Long Beach Island (Save LBI) is an organization of citizens and businesses on and off the Island working together to protect the ocean and Long Beach Island and neighboring communities from the destructive impact of the Atlantic Shores project and potentially other offshore wind projects. As a not-for-profit, non-partisan entity, we do not endorse any political candidates but vigorously pursue policies and actions that protect the Island and New Jersey communities. The organization is led by Beach Haven resident Bob Stern, a Ph.D. engineer with experience in environmental law who previously managed the U.S. Department of Energy’s office overseeing environment protection related to energy programs and projects. Visit SaveLBI.org for more information and to make a donation.
Contact: https://www.savelbi.org/contact.
For more information click here: https://www.savelbi.org/.
References
Note: If a link doesn’t work, copy and paste the URL into a browser.
1. Halkirk 2 wind facility shut down after [Vestas] turbine breaks, Nov. 9, 2024, https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/halkirk-2-wind-facility-shut-down-after-turbine-breaks-1.7104801
2. Blade broken off Siemens Gamesa turbine at Swedish wind farm, Nov. 7, 2024, https://energywatch.com/EnergyNews/Renewables/article17617839.ece
3. [Vestas] Wind turbine collapses in Schuler County [Missouri], third incident in six months, Oct. 31, 2024, https://khqa.com/news/local/wind-turbine-collapses-in-schuyler-county-third-incident-in-six-months
4. [Vestas] Wind Turbine collapses in Schuyler County, Missouri, Aug. 27, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQHl5hTV5a0
5. Second GE Vern ova turbine blade reportedly fails at UK’s Dogger Bank wind farm, Aug. 23, 2024, https://www.offshore-mag.com/renewable-energy/article/55135538/second-ge-vernova-turbine-blade-reportedly-fails-at-uks-dogger-bank-wind-farm
6. Vineyard Wind incident was not first time a GE Vernova wind turbine came apart, Reuters, July 18, 2024 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/vineyard-wind-incident-was-not-first-time-ge-vernova-wind-turbine-came-apart-2024-07-18/
7. Dogger Bank Makes Statement on Site Incident [GE Vernova blade], May 10, 2024, https://nawindpower.com/dogger-bank-makes-statement-on-site-incident
8. All northeastern [Vestas] wind turbines taken offline after 1 collapses in Schuyler County [on April 26], May 3, 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sUCoZJ1Asc
9. Energy analyst Philip Totaro on Vestas failures at the Ameren wind farm in Missouri, Nov. 2024, LinkedIn post: “The High Prairie hashtag#windenergy project in Schuyler County, Missouri suffers the third wind turbine collapse in six months. The project, owned by Ameren, has 163 units of Vestas V120 2.2-MW on 92 meter towers and 12 units of Vestas V112 3.45-MW on 94 meter towers. The causes of the previous collapses have not been publicly released.”
10. Why do wind turbines break down more often? Jan. 31, 2023, https://www.maintworld.com/Asset-Management/Why-do-wind-turbines-break-down-more-often
11. Ever-Growing Offshore Wind Turbines Bring Unsustainable Market Risks – GCube, May 4, 2023, https://www.offshorewind.biz/2023/05/04/ever-growing-offshore-wind-turbines-bring-unsustainable-market-risks-gcube/
https://gcube-insurance.com/Insights/Reports/Vertical-Limit
12. Canada station reports “falsification scheme” at turbine plant, Nov. 12, https://www.mvtimes.com/2024/11/12/canada-station-reports-falsification-scheme-turbine-plant/
13. Possible falsification of data at LM Wind Power, Oct. 24, 2024, https://www.radiogaspesie.ca/nouvelles/actualite/falsification-possible-de-donnees-chez-lm-wind-power/
14. Official documentation for the Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbine to be used in Atlantic Shores South project, vestas.com/en/energy-solutions/offshore-wind-turbines/V236-15MW
15. Official documentation for the GE Vernova Haliade-X offshore wind turbine used in the Massachusetts Vineyard Wind project, gevernova.com/wind-power/offshore-wind/haliade-x-offshore-turbine
16. GE Vernova and Vineyard Wind Provide Update on Incident and Response Action Plan, Oct. 23, 2024, vineyardwind.com/press-releases/2024/10/23/ge-vernova-and-vineyard-wind-provide-update-on-incident-and-response-action-plan
Related link: https://www.savelbi.org/
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