A wind turbine off the coast of Nantucket in Massachusetts that broke apart last year has been damaged again by a lightning strike.

Damage contained to blade

The company behind the turbine, Vineyard Wind, said the damage was contained to the blade and there's no impact to the rest of the structure. They added there's no indication any debris came off the turbine after the strike.

"As part of a continuous effort to manage the damaged GE Vernova blade on turbine AW-38, a rigorous action plan has been put into place which includes debris recovery resources, recurrent flyovers to observe the turbine, and ultimately GE Vernova's planned removal and replacement of the blade in May 2025," Vineyard Wind said in a statement, in part.    

Parts of turbine fell into ocean 

There's a dozen wind turbines in the waters off the coast of Nantucket and each one weighs about 70 tons.

In July 2024, parts of a blade fell off and sent debris the size of a football field into the Atlantic Ocean. No one was injured but large shards of fiberglass and pieces of the blade later washed up on Nantucket beaches. Development of the wind farm has since been halted by the federal government.

The Department of Energy says incidents where pieces break off the turbine are rare. There are 40 incidents documented out of 40,000 modern turbines installed in the U.S. since 2014.