GE Vernova, the company that made the blade that broke a wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket and littered the shore with shards of potentially dangerous fragments, suffered a financial hit following the incident.

During its third-quarter earnings call, according to RTO InsiderThe company said its onshore wind business had its best quarter since 2021, but problems with its offshore business took the wind out of the good news. The July 13 blade failure and resulting delays will cost the company an estimated $700 million.

GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said the company cut offshore jobs in the third quarter and would not accept new orders until there was a substantial change in the company’s finances. offshore wind industry. In the meantime, GE Vernova will focus on filling a $3 billion backlog in offshore wind power.

The company said it was removing “certain blades” from Vineyard Wind following an analysis of 8,300 ultrasound images per blade, the Nantucket Current reportsas well as physical inspections with “tracked” drones.

The company did not provide specific numbers on how many blades would be removed or the results of this analysis, but if it removes more blades, it’s likely the company will have found more problems. GE Veranova will also “harden” other blades, but no further details on the number of methods were provided.

GE Vernova has long claimed the problem was the result of a “manufacturing discrepancy” at a Canadian factory. The number of blades found with a discrepancy, Strazik said, represented the “low single-digit proportion” of the total amount manufactured by the company.

“In those cases, we’re taking action against those blades, and we’re doing that right now, and we’re really getting to the point of going back to offshore enforcement,” Strazik said.

In a statementGE Vernova and Vineyard Wind said they were taking steps to remove seafloor debris and the blade root that remained after most of it broke off. Removal of debris from the seafloor will be completed this week, but removal of roots will take weeks.

While Strazik seemed optimistic that the company was poised to move forward, the release claimed that it had received approval on Monday to resume installing new blades on the project’s turbines. once strict safety and operating conditions are met.”

In a declaration sent to Currentthe federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Vineyard Wind is still prohibited from generating electricity, installing blades or conducting any activity on the turbine where the incident occurred.

On a case-by-case basis, BSEE added, certain specific activities will be permitted after “sufficient risk analysis has been carried out and mitigation measures have been adopted.”

During Wednesday’s earnings conference call, Strazik said it had “finalized the root cause analysis,” which confirmed the issue was caused by a manufacturing discrepancy at the Canadian factory. BSEE said the suspension order requires Vineyard Wind to conduct a root cause analysis and provide copies to the agency.

Just the news contacted GE Vernova to find out if this analysis was complete and if the agency had not received it. The company did not respond. Vineyard Wind reiterated language from the joint statement that approval was contingent on meeting strict safety and operational conditions.

Although the companies have not obtained the necessary approvals to proceed or any assurance that the conditions will be met, the companies’ announcement has worried opponents of offshore wind power about the project’s progress.

In a letter to the editor of the Currentmembers of ACK for whalessaid they were “shocked and truly disturbed” that Vineyard Wind says construction will resume soon.

“Permitting for this project was approved recklessly from the start, and the project has already shown a huge failure that does not appear to have been fully resolved. A blade explosion, the damage of which we are still seeing, was not even considered in Vineyard Wind’s construction and operations plan,” wrote members of ACK for Whales.

When and if the company moves forward with the project, it may be some time before it regains the trust of the Nantucket community. A non-profit organization had co-signed an agreement requiring the city and other signatories to commit to supporting the Vineyard Wind project in exchange for $16 million to mitigate the impacts of the wind turbines. THE nonprofit organization announced Wednesday he withdraws from the agreement.