The Vineyard Wind disaster could be a sign of trouble on the horizon for the renewable energy industry

Last month, a turbine blade broke off at a wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Most of the blade, the length of a football field, fell into the ocean. Pieces of fiberglass and foam were seen floating in the ocean and washing up on Nantucket beaches, which had to be closed.

The blade was not broken by a major storm or other drastic event. Rather, the wind itself – the very thing the blade was intended to tame – broke the blade.

The obvious question is whether ocean wind farms are actually environmentally friendly. Much has been said about how wind turbines kill birds and disturb marine life. But now you need to consider what other maintenance costs are required to remain environmentally safe throughout the decommissioning process. If the wind itself can damage turbines to the point that mass cleanup is necessary, our current offshore wind regulatory system may need to be modernized.

Wind turbines can’t live forever. Like all industrial energy sources, they must be decommissioned, which is not an easy task. Indeed, as technologies around these sources develop rapidly, many wind farms are entering the decommissioning phase earlier than originally planned. For example, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has already required massive new intermittent capacity to be added to the grid, which necessarily involves replacing old, existing technology.

But do we have a good system in place to ensure an orderly decommissioning process that ultimately does not burden taxpayers or worsen the environment? In short, the answer seems to be no.

The recent disaster off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard illustrates the nature of the cleanup procedures used when these large industrial machines break down. It took Vineyard Wind’s owners almost a month to dismantle a single turbine and cut it into pieces for disposal. Blades, damaged or not, must be cut to size to allow for transportation and removal from service.

The fiberglass used to make the turbines is also not recyclable and creates waste. To dispose of it, it must be landfilled or incinerated, which creates additional environmental concerns. This, of course, requires the existence of a landfill that will be able to accept waste of this size.

Other highly regulated energy industries, such as petroleum and nuclear power, have developed extensive decommissioning procedures after many decades of operational experience. This often led to financial assurance – demonstrating the ability to pay for decommissioning – made by operators during the construction and project approval stages. Exemptions are rarely granted. Whether that means issuing bonds, purchasing insurance, or demonstrating long-term fiscal strength, these procedures have gone a long way toward protecting the public.

Given this, the relative indifference of government regulators to the financial burden that may fall on taxpayers from this largely untested marine technology is concerning. The Department of the Interior granted the two foreign companies that own Vineyard Wind a 15-year waiver of financial security obligations as they greenlit the country’s first large-scale offshore wind facility in 2021. Considering the project was the first of its kind and its massive scale, the granting of the waiver was stunning.

There have been no decommissioning of offshore wind farms in the United States. An analysis of the costs of onshore wind farms or power plants in other countries shows that they are expensive. Xcel Energy, the owner of the onshore wind farm, estimated that decommissioning each turbine would cost between $400,000 and $532,000, meaning it would cost $71 million to safely and responsibly shut down this single project. Offshore turbine decommissioning forecasts for the UK total £10 billion.

Other countries investing in renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, are already aware of the potential danger of a future renewable energy waste crisis. In Australia, experts have warned that waste from solar panels will reach crisis levels in the next two to three years, almost a decade earlier than originally predicted. The uncertainty of this technology shows that we are anxious to figure out how to pay for liquidation.

The IRA has already accelerated the development of renewable energy in the US, spending $369 billion to develop wind and solar energy. There is an urgent need to introduce models for resolution and financial security now. It is high time for the renewable energy industry to take responsibility for the financial guarantees associated with decommissioning, as it does for other industries. Regulation is necessary and urgently needed to protect both the environment and the taxpayer. Vineyard Wind should have been a warning sign.

Curtis Schube is executive director of the Council to Modernize Governance, a think tank dedicated to making government more efficient, representative and restrained. Previously, he was a legal advisor in the field of constitutional and administrative law.