The developer of a major wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts is suing its turbine manufacturer in an attempt to force it to move forward with the project.
Vineyard Wind filed a lawsuit against GE Renewables on Wednesday in Massachusetts. That comes after GE Renewables’ parent company said it would end its turbine maintenance and service contract at the end of April.
GE Vernova said Vineyard Wind owes it $300 million for work it performed. But Vineyard Wind countered that the manufacturer still must pay about $545 million to make up for the catastrophic turbine blade collapse in July 2024 and the delays it caused.
Pieces of the blade’s fiberglass broke off and began washing up on Nantucket beaches in July 2024 during the height of tourist season. GE Vernova has agreed to pay $10.5 million in a settlement to compensate damaged island businesses.
The lawsuit states that the project has suffered significant damage due to GE Renewable’s “inexplicable poor performance” and that allowing the contractor to withdraw now would cause irreparable harm. Craig Gilvarg, a spokesman for Vineyard Wind, said Friday that the lawsuit is intended to ensure that GE Renewables fulfills its obligations to the project “and to the people of Massachusetts and New England who rely on the power and significant economic benefits this project is providing.” He said Vineyard Wind is expected to deliver $3.7 billion in savings to electric customers over the life of the project.
GE Vernova said the company is exercising its right to terminate the agreements for non-payment for work performed.
“The company remains committed to ensuring wind farm safety and compliance with our operational performance and contractual obligations,” the company said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend our position through the appropriate legal process.”
Construction on Vineyard Wind was completed in March, becoming the first project to reach this stage during President Donald Trump’s time in office. It has been supplying power to the grid for more than a year as more turbines are completed. It is expected to reach full operations in the coming months.
According to the lawsuit, GE Renewables was the only company that could do the remaining work, and it was virtually impossible to find another turbine supplier willing to replace the work. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
GE Vernova said that a loose connection at one of its plants in Canada caused the blade to come loose, and that there was no indication of a design defect. Sixty-eight of the 72 fan blades installed at Vineyard Wind at the time were removed and replaced. Vineyard Wind said the project is nearly two years behind schedule.
The Trump administration specifically criticized the project because of the broken blades.
It is one of five major offshore wind projects on the East Coast that the Trump administration halted construction in the days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Developers and states sued, and federal judges allowed all five companies to continue construction, essentially concluding that the government had failed to prove that the national security risk was so imminent that construction had to stop.
Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Agricultural Partners, located 15 miles (24 km) south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It has 62 turbines that will generate a total capacity of 800 megawatts. That amount of clean electricity is enough to power about 400,000 homes.
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