July 18 (Reuters) - An incident at the Vineyard Wind

offshore wind energy project this week that scattered shards of

fiberglass across Massachusetts beaches was the latest in a

series of failures involving wind turbines built by GE Vernova ( GEV )

.

At least one other GE Vernova ( GEV ) offshore wind turbine came

apart this year, at the massive Dogger Bank A project off the UK

coast, and several onshore wind turbines in Germany and Sweden

have also broken in recent years, according to a Reuters

examination of recent incidents in the wind power industry.

The turbine blade incidents have been a setback for projects

at a time when the U.S. and other governments are relying on

wind power in the transition away from fossil fuels to fight

climate change. The mishaps have raised questions about the

quality of GE's turbines which are widely used across the

industry.

"It's not yet known if that was the result of a faulty

installation or an issue with the blade quality itself, but that

is the concern," said Chris Dendrinos, a clean energy industry

analyst at RBC Capital Markets, referring to the Vineyard Wind

incident.

GE Vernova ( GEV ) competitor Siemens Gamesa has been

working to fix quality issues with its wind power turbines after

a spate of equipment failures.

Federal safety regulators on Wednesday ordered Vineyard

Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid ( AGR ) and Copenhagen

Infrastructure Partners, to stop operations and cease

construction activity pending an investigation into the cause of

the incident.

The project is the first major U.S. offshore wind farm and

is still under construction with only about a third of its

planned turbines in the water.

Vineyard Wind is installing GE Vernova's ( GEV ) Haliade-X

13-megawatt turbines, which have 107-meter-long blades. The

blade broke about 20 meters (65.62 ft) out from the root,

Vineyard Wind said.

The company said the cause of the breakage was unknown.

In May, a single blade on the same model of GE turbine at

the Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm also sustained damage,

leading its operator SSE Renewables to restrict access to the

waters around the project and investigate the cause.

The result of the investigation was not publicly announced.

SSE Renewables did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

GE Vernova ( GEV ) spokesperson Treacy Reynolds told Reuters that

the two incidents were unrelated but did not elaborate.

GE Vernova ( GEV ) stock fell 9.25% on Wednesday to close at $165.83

on the New York Stock Exchange.

GE Cypress model onshore turbines have broken at wind farms

in Germany and Sweden in the last two years. Onshore turbines

are far smaller than their offshore counterparts. GE did not

comment on the onshore breakages.

Vineyard Wind said on Wednesday it has removed about 17

cubic yards, or more than six truckloads, of debris from the

damaged wind turbine off Massachusetts.

Beaches were reopened on the south shore of the island of

Nantucket on Wednesday a day after being closed because of

debris that had washed ashore, the town said in a statement on

its website.