GE Vernova, Vineyard Wind settle legal battle over New England wind farm

Sept 16 (Reuters) – Wind farm developer Vineyard Wind said on Wednesday it had resolved a legal dispute arising ​from turbine supplier GE Vernova’s effort to walk away from its $4.5 ‌billion project in New England over claims it was owed more than $300 million.

As part of a settlement, GE Vernova said it had withdrawn the termination notice it sent in ​February seeking to end its involvement in the wind farm project. ​It also dropped an appeal of an injunction requiring it ⁠to keep working on it.

Both sides agreed to dismiss all pending legal ​claims, the companies said. Other terms of the confidential settlement were not disclosed.

Vineyard ​Wind’s 806-megawatt project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts began initial operations in February, after it convinced a federal judge a month earlier to block President Donald Trump’s ​administration from halting construction.

But days later, GE Vernova, which designed, manufactured and ​installed the project’s wind turbine generators, sent a notice threatening to terminate its $1.3 billion contract, ‌saying ⁠it was owed $360 million.

Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Spain’s Iberdrola and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, sued in response in a state court in Boston, arguing GE Vernova’s action wrongly threatened the project’s commercial viability.

The developer argued it ​had been entitled ​to withhold hundreds ⁠of millions of dollars from GE Vernova’s GE Renewables US LLC unit after a turbine blade collapsed in 2024 and ​fell into the waters off Nantucket.

That blade failure caused two ​years ⁠of delays after the manufacturing flaw that led to the failure was found to be widespread, requiring the replacement of other blades, Vineyard Wind said.

Suffolk County Superior ⁠Court ​Judge Peter Krupp issued an injunction in April that ​prevented GE Vernova from terminating work on the project. An appeal of that decision had been ​pending up until Wednesday’s settlement.

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