GE Vernova loses renewed bid to end work on New England wind farm
* Judge upholds injunction requiring GE Vernova to continue turbine work
* GE Vernova claims termination right due to Vineyard Wind’s non-payment
* Vineyard Wind states that if GE leaves, it would pose a risk to the viability of the project
BOSTON, June 1 (Reuters) – A Massachusetts judge on Monday refused to lift a ruling forcing turbine supplier GE Vernova to continue work on the largest offshore wind farm in New England or submit its dispute with Vineyard Wind, the developer of the $4.5 billion project, to arbitration. Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp in Boston ruled that nothing had changed since he issued the preliminary injunction in April and that Vineyard Wind was contractually allowed to pursue its legal dispute in court to obtain immediate relief. The judge had issued an injunction requiring GE Vernova to continue operating at Vineyard Wind’s behest; The company had sued GE Vernova after a subsidiary of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company sent it a notice threatening to terminate its contract for not being paid $360 million.
Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Spain’s Iberdrola and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, argued that if GE was allowed to withdraw from the project and stop servicing the 806-megawatt project’s 62 turbines, it would threaten its commercial viability.
GE Vernova appealed Krupp’s injunction in April. But he also asked Krupp to reconsider the situation and send the case to arbitration, saying Vineyard Wind’s recent announcements and state officials declaring the wind farm essentially complete indicate GE would not suffer irreparable harm if it exited the project.
But Krupp said those announcements don’t change the fact that the project depends on GE’s “expertise and proprietary know-how in bringing turbines to operational capacity.” He said allowing GE and its more than 200 employees and subcontractors to quit would jeopardize the financing of the project.
GE Vernova said in a statement that it was proud of its work on the project and had the right to terminate the contract for non-payment. “We look forward to the next steps,” the company said.
Vineyard Wind did not respond to a request for comment. Vineyard Wind’s project on the Martha’s Vineyard waterfront first went into operation in February, after the developer persuaded a federal judge a month earlier to block President Donald Trump’s administration from halting construction. The developer argues it has the right to retain hundreds of millions of dollars from GE Vernova’s GE Renewables US LLC unit after one of its turbine blades collapsed and fell into the waters off Nantucket in 2024.
Vineyard Wind says this blade failure caused two-year delays after it was discovered that the manufacturing defect that led to the failure was widespread and required other blades to be replaced.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
