Blade damage during construction at Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm

In May 2024, a blade on an installed turbine at Dogger Bank A, an offshore wind farm under construction in the North Sea off the coast of England, United Kingdom, sustained damage. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm consortium, the project's owner and operator, disclosed the damage about a week after it occurred, stating that the damage was limited to a single blade on an installed turbine, that the surrounding marine area was restricted as a precaution, and that no one was injured or in the vicinity at the time. Construction work, including further turbine installation, resumed roughly a week after the event once initial findings indicated that the issue was confined to the affected blade.

According to public statements made by GE Vernova, the turbine manufacturer, in July 2024 and reported in the trade press, the damage was assessed as resulting from an installation error offshore during the construction campaign, rather than from a design or manufacturing issue. GE Vernova drew a distinction between this event and a separate blade failure on a similar turbine type at another project, which it attributed to a manufacturing deviation. The detailed findings and any resulting changes to installation procedures were not published. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm consortium stated publicly that the issue was isolated to the single affected blade.

1. Treat installation-phase blade damage as a failure mode in its own right, with separate root cause analysis and prevention measures from manufacturing or operational failures.
2. Apply the same level of quality control, hold points and procedural sign-off to offshore blade handling and installation as is applied in the factory, recognising that multi-vessel lifts in marine conditions carry their own risks.
3. After a blade damage event, extend inspection to other units installed in the same campaign or by the same crew, rather than limiting checks to the affected component, even where early findings suggest an isolated cause.
4. Record and communicate root cause clearly as design, manufacturing or installation, so that operators of similar equipment can assess their own exposure.
5. Build a planned pause and verification window into construction programmes so that work can be suspended, findings reviewed and installation resumed on documented evidence rather than schedule pressure.
6. Retain photographic and lift-record evidence from each blade installation so that any later damage can be traced to a specific handling sequence.

offshorewind.biz/2024/07/25/ge-vernova-manufacturing-deviation-led-to-vin...