Weeks after Nantucket town leaders issued a litany of demands of the Vineyard Wind 1 project under construction about 15 miles off the island’s coast, Gov. Maura Healey told an island media outlet this week that the project “needs to do everything it can to address what the town has articulated in terms of its needs.”
Nantucket officials last month accused the project developed by Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners of chronic communication failures, stalled implementation of light pollution mitigation, and a lack of emergency planning.
Earlier in July, the town reached a $10.5 million settlement with GE Vernova, the company that manufactured the wind turbine blade that failed on the Vineyard Wind project in July 2024, littering Nantucket’s beaches and waters with foam, fiberglass and other debris.
Healey, an offshore wind booster who has not been vocal about calling the delayed Vineyard Wind 1 project to public account, told the Nantucket Current on Tuesday that she “stand[s] with the town” and had been in touch with Vineyard Wind as recently as Monday “to reiterate my request to them to work with the town to meet the town’s needs, especially around emergency response, communication, transparency, all of that.”
“I have been emphatic with Vineyard Wind about that and about my expectations, and I will continue to be and I will continue also to be available to meet with, to discuss this with, the town and with the select board and and residents as we move forward, because this is a long-term engagement and we need things to be done the right way,” Healey said, according to a video posted by the outlet.
The governor added, “We’ll be continuing our conversations and discussions with the town and with Vineyard Wind. But, you know, my expectation is that Vineyard Wind needs to do everything it can to address what the town has articulated in terms of its needs.”
A few days after Nantucket issued its demands, Vineyard Wind announced that it had completed the integration of all of its installed turbines into a required system that prevents the red aircraft warning lights atop each turbine from blinking unless an aircraft is detected nearby on radar. Slow progress on that system was among the town’s grievances.
“Recognizing that this lighting system is a critical priority for our neighboring island communities, Vineyard Wind has worked hard for the past year to accelerate the deployment and implementation of ADLS across the project as quickly as possible,” project CEO Klaus Møller said.
Healey was on Nantucket on Tuesday afternoon to discuss housing challenges on the island during a stop at a recently completed housing development and to tour a sustainable farm and greenhouse that addresses food security on Nantucket.
— Colin A. Young / State House News Service
