First, an offshore wind turbine lost a blade. Then it was struck by lightning.
Officials with Vineyard Wind, a 62-turbine project near Massachusetts, said they had discovered damage consistent with a lightning strike after conducting a flyover to view the tower that had lost the blade, which detached from the turbine and crashed into the ocean last summer.
The lightning strike appears to have occurred Friday, according to local media reports. It is the latest setback for Vineyard Wind, which had only just begun to recover from the July blade incident. Federal regulators temporarily halted work on the project after the blade fell off. Tower and nacelle installation resumed in August, and blade installation resumed in December.
The executive chair of Iberdrola, the Spanish company that’s building Vineyard Wind, told investors last week that he expected the project to be completed by the end of 2025. Vineyard Wind is a joint project of Iberdrola and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
