GE Vernova has commenced a comprehensive reinspection program for up to 150 offshore wind turbine blades manufactured at its Gaspe facility in Canada. This action follows the identification of a manufacturing fault that led to a blade failure at the Vineyard Wind project off Massachusetts 12 days ago.
The company confirmed during an investor call on July 24 that the failure resulted from a “manufacturing deviation”. GE Vernova's Chief Executive, Scott Strazik, stated, “We have identified a material deviation, or a manufacturing deviation, in one of our factories that through the inspection or quality assurance process, we should have identified.”
Strazik elaborated that the company plans to re-examine all blades produced at the Gaspe facility, utilizing non-destructive testing methods such as ultrasound to detect any deviations. “We are going to go and do this on every blade, prudent, thorough process,” he said. “We have work to do, but I have a high degree of confidence that we can do this, and we'll do it in support of both the customer and the agency and move forward from there.”
He reassured that there were no signs of an engineering design flaw in the blade and no link to a similar incident at the Dogger Bank offshore wind project in the UK, which was attributed to an installation error.
In the second quarter of 2022, GE Vernova reported a 21% decrease in revenues in its wind division, amounting to $2.1 billion, due to reduced onshore wind deliveries partially offset by offshore wind backlog execution.
