Vineyard Wind said Tuesday it has received federal approval to resume some installation work on wind turbines but power production at the offshore wind farm remains on hold after a massive turbine blade broke off last month, dropping fiberglass debris into the ocean.
The Vineyard Wind project began producing power for the New England grid earlier this year, but operations ground to a halt after one wind turbine sustained damage to a blade on July 13. Cambridge-based GE Vernova, which manufactures and installs the wind turbines, has said the damage was caused by poor bonding and quality control at a factory in Quebec.
The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement issued a suspension order in July, pausing power production and further installation of wind turbines at the site while the cause of the breakage was investigated.
A spokesperson for the bureau confirmed it released a new order on Saturday allowing Vineyard Wind to resume installation of turbine towers and nacelles, which sit atop the towers and house the main mechanical components, including the generator that produces power as the blades spin.
The order continues to bar Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova from installing turbine blades and producing power for the regional grid. A spokesperson for the bureau said Tuesday that there is “no timetable” for when power production may resume at the wind farm.
BSEE is onsite “confirming regulatory requirements” are adhered to and “making sure that Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova are complying with all applicable safety, environmental, and conservation laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The green light for further installation work comes after Vineyard Wind began removing large pieces from the remaining damaged blade on turbine AW-38 through “controlled cutting” on Sunday and Monday, according to the statement.
“Vineyard Wind and GE Vernova are currently assessing next steps to complete any additional cutting necessary at the earliest opportunity, secure and remove the debris on the turbine platform, remove the blade root, and address the debris on the seabed,” the statement said.
The debris that fell from the damaged turbine contained a mix of fiberglass, foam, and balsa wood. Pieces of debris began washing up on beaches along Nantucket’s southern shore within a couple days of the damage, prompting island officials to close the beaches to swimmers for a day while crews removed more than six truckloads of the material.
Debris has continued to appear in the water and along the coast in the weeks since. Town officials in Falmouth reported last week that materials from the broken blade have also washed up on the town’s west-facing beaches, and pieces were also spotted on the shores of the Vineyard, South Coast, and Rhode Island.
Nantucket officials on Sunday warned that more debris could reach the island’s beaches again this week following the detachment work. Island officials and officials with GE and Vineyard Wind continue to urge the public not to handle the material themselves and to report any debris.
Vineyard Wind and GE said the bureau revised its suspension order after examining “relevant records and information,” including a third-party structural load analysis by the consulting firm Det Norske Veritas.
A barge carrying several turbine tower sections and one nacelle was heading to the wind farm from the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal on Tuesday morning, according to Vineyard Wind and GE. The barge was also carrying three turbine blades “solely for the purpose of ensuring safe and balanced composition for the transport” and would not be installed.
The developer said the Coast Guard continues to hold a 500-meter safety exclusion zone around the damaged wind turbine.
The wind farm, which is about 15 miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, is slated to have 62 skyscraper-sized turbine towers when complete. Twenty-four turbines have been installed so far, and 11 were delivering power to the region’s grid when the blade failure took place.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.