A blade that fell from a 300-foot-tall turbine and right into a Massachusetts cranberry bathroom has sparked critics of wind power to resume their name for the state Legislature to again away from its net-zero by 2050 mandate.
Massachusetts is turning into accustomed to turbine failures, with Friday’s blade collapse in Plymouth following the same incident off the shores of Nantucket in the summertime of 2024.
The Plymouth Hearth Division says it responded to a name from a “concerned neighbor” who observed one of many three blades on a close-by wind turbine “suddenly missing,” round 2 p.m. Friday. Firefighters discovered the roughly 75- to 100-feet lengthy blade a whole bunch of ft away from the bottom of the turbine, “resting in an open cranberry bog area.”
Firefighters decided that no extra hazards had been current, and the turbine’s upkeep firm additionally responded to the scene to conduct inspections and decide the failure’s trigger.
The state Division of Environmental Safety instructed the Herald on Saturday that the company was coordinating with the Plymouth Hearth Division and native officers to “review the incident and ensure necessary cleanup is completed.”
“We were fortunate that this turbine is located out in the middle of the cranberry bogs and not in a residential area,” Plymouth Hearth Chief Neil Foley mentioned in a press release. “Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the turbine automatically shut itself down as designed.”
The Bay State is a nationwide chief in wind, notably offshore, to fulfill its targets for clear power and demand for electrical energy. Gov. Maura Healey has emphasised that the area wants this energy.
State lawmakers need to scale back carbon emissions by not less than 80% by 2050, when Massachusetts is required to hit web zero.
The governor’s workplace referred the Herald to the state DEP and the city of Plymouth for additional touch upon how officers are responding to Friday’s blade collapse. It added that the turbine was constructed earlier than the Healey administration.
Plymouth practically a decade in the past authorised 4 wind generators simply over the city line, bordering Bourne, on the “Keith Mann” cranberry bathroom, the Cape Cod Instances reported in March 2017. The machines’ “large blades” prompted “stories of deafening noise, unexplained headaches, and restless nights from neighbors” after they began spinning in the summertime of 2016, the outlet reported.
The Fiscal Alliance watchdog group has warned that residents and companies can “expect electricity rates to double, along with rolling blackouts,” if the state reaches web zero by 2050.
Paul Diego Craney, the group’s govt director, is asking for a repeal of that mandate and for Lawyer Basic Andrea Campbell to carry wind corporations accountable for his or her failures.
“The images of the broken blade lying in a cranberry bog, with oil leaking out of its gearbox, and fiberglass pieces littering the cranberry bog,” Craney instructed the Herald on Saturday, “are a reminder of what our future will look like under the NetZero mandate.”
The blade collapse in Plymouth is the most recent mishap within the perilous Massachusetts wind power business.
A federal decide final week greenlighted the Trump administration to rethink a significant federal allow that was granted to a Massachusetts offshore wind farm days earlier than the president’s inauguration.
Developer SouthCoast Wind responded, saying it’s assessing the choice and subsequent steps, together with the pursuit of authorized cures. SouthCoast Wind is a challenge deliberate for federal waters about 23 miles south of Nantucket, with as many as 141 generators to energy about 840,000 properties in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
President Trump has attacked the offshore wind business as “ugly” and unreliable in comparison with fossil fuels reminiscent of coal and pure gasoline.
New Bedford resident Elijah DeSousa, who based the Residents In opposition to Eversource advocacy group, is demanding that the state Legislature rethink its pursuit of fresh power. He’s pointing to the Plymouth blade collapse as yet one more instance of a “broken promise.”
DeSousa’s group is working to assemble sufficient signatures for 3 questions that intention to reform the power sector on the 2026 poll.
“We’re told ‘clean energy’ is progress,” DeSousa instructed the Herald on Saturday, “but when turbine blades crash into our land, leak toxic fluids, and leave the people paying the cost, it becomes clear: the legislature’s revenue decoupling system rewards corporations, punishes ratepayers, and hides behind slogans and false mantras instead of accountability.”
The Plymouth turbine failure prompted critics to replicate on a wind turbine blade that tore aside on the Winery Wind challenge in July 2024, littering Nantucket’s seashores and waters with foam, fiberglass and different particles.
Nantucket officers reached a $10.5 million settlement this previous July with GE Vernova, the corporate that manufactured the wind turbine blade that failed on the challenge.
Healey has mentioned that the corporate behind the challenge must do “everything it can to address what the town has articulated” in a litany of calls for it issued over the summer time.
All three Republican gubernatorial candidates — Brian Shortsleeve, Mike Kennealy and Mike Minogue — instructed the Herald on Saturday that options to inexperienced power should be prioritized as an alternative of going ahead with an unpredictable type of power, which they are saying has resulted in skyrocketing utility prices.
“Residents of Massachusetts are seeing the real-world environmental fallout associated with wind energy once again contaminating our natural resources,” MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale mentioned, including that she “urges the Healey administration to refocus on more reliable and affordable sources of energy for our residents.”
Herald wire providers contributed to this report
