Reacting To A Broken Blade - Editorial
The damage that occurred last weekend to the Vineyard Wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket, though regrettable, hardly represents a major industrial accident. There is still much to be learned as to how and why the 351-foot blade was left so badly damaged and all parties involved need to take the investigation into this situation seriously—especially since most of what had remained of the massive blade had also plummeted into the waters below by midday Thursday. The Coast Guard is reported to have recovered a whopping 300-foot-long piece of the blade.
As expected, local residents and officials alike were not pleased when news broke early this week that the island’s southern beaches would be closed due to fiberglass debris. The umbrage only increased as the week progressed, with cleanup crews reportedly carting off 17 cubic yards of debris and several large pieces of the broken turbine blade from the island’s southern shores so far.
Still, this incident, on its face at least, does not appear to be a major blow to the wind power industry at-large. Beaches reopened Wednesday, officials from Vineyard Wind uttered the golden phrase—”Safety is the number one priority”—and warnings were issued to beachgoers and mariners about floating debris consisting of what Vineyard Wind called “nontoxic fiberglass.” The shards are sharp, we’re told, but the material is not inherently hazardous to people or the environment, and does not represent a serious threat to the environment or the economy in the grand scheme of things.
We are at a critical point in the fight for our planet, and wind is a powerful tool in stemming the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Demand for electricity is drastically on the rise, and a solution to meet this need with renewable energy is vital and urgent. Work to find that solution is ongoing and we are lucky enough to have that work happening right here in our backyard, but perfection cannot be expected as this technology is evolving. We are bearing witness to the fact that evolution is not often a trouble-free process.
The broken blade should be discussed analytically and with an open mind. All parties involved must do their utmost to ensure this does not happen again, and those of us living by the sea must exercise patience with evolving technologies. We doubt that people living through the increasingly unpredictable weather caused by climate change all around the globe will understand why the threat of temporarily closed beaches should negate or fully halt the evolution of renewable technologies.
For now, operations at the wind farm have ceased while an investigation into the cause is underway, and Vineyard Wind has said “the public can have confidence that we will be here as long as it takes to get the job done and make sure the beaches are cleaned up.” It’s a good sentiment, and we would urge the public to further that and also have confidence in the value of the wind industry, and in the merit of those working to pioneer these new technologies.
On a parting note, on the evening of December 21, 1976, the 641-foot oil tanker Argo Merchant ran aground on the shoals just south of Nantucket, spilling her 7.7 million gallons of oil into the Atlantic. If not for the strong northwesterly winds, the fisheries and beaches would have been closed quite a lot longer than they were this week.