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MASSACHUSETTS: Broken Vineyard Wind Turbine Struck by Lightning

March 3, 2025 — The same Vineyard Wind turbine blade that snapped in half last summer now appears to have been struck by lightning, according to the company and the U.S. Coast Guard.

On Sunday, officials confirmed that the turbine at the southernmost end of the Vineyard Wind lease off Martha’s Vineyard was apparently hit by lightning late last week, damaging the already broken blade.

The Coast Guard reported a strike occurred on Feb. 27, and it was working with Vineyard Wind to ensure there were no navigational hazards in the area.

Vineyard Wind, in a statement Sunday afternoon, said a preliminary inspection indicated that the blade had been hit by lightning, and the company was continuing to assess the damage.

“This was contained to the damaged blade and based on current information there is no impact to the nacelle or turbine structure,” the company wrote. “Vineyard Wind deployed both aerial and maritime resources and based on current observations, there is no indication of debris from this event.”

The strike comes as Vineyard Wind was working to get back on track after the blade broke in July, scattering thousands of pieces of fiberglass into the ocean. The turbine, one of 62 planned for a 166,886-acre area of ocean about 14 miles south of the Island, had a defect that was not caught in the manufacturing process and had since been turned off.

The company is under orders from the federal government to remove 66 blades that were built at the same Canadian factory as the defective one.

Vineyard Wind on Sunday said it was already continuously monitoring the broken turbine due to the previous blade failure, and its manufacturer, GE Vernova, planned to remove the remaining portion of the blade and replace it in May.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the federal agency charged with overseeing offshore wind energy projects, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

Standing more than 800-feet tall, the turbines have been a point of controversy in the region and nationally. Vineyard Wind was the first commercial-scale project to get all of its permitting when it was approved by the federal government in 2021, and last summer, before the break, it was the largest operating offshore wind farm in the country.

Read the full article at Vineyard Gazette

Vineyard Wind Plans to Test Aircraft Lighting

February 25, 2025 — The constantly blinking lights atop the Vineyard Wind offshore wind energy turbines could soon be turned off for most of the night.

Vineyard Wind is set to test its aircraft detection lighting system this week on 12 turbines, Nantucket select board chair Brooke Mohr said in a meeting last week. The lights have remained blinking at night, becoming a hot topic on the sister island and a nuisance for Vineyarders who say the lights stand out against the dark sky.

The system is designed to have the lights off unless an aircraft is approaching. When a plane comes near, the lights on the turbine start to flash red. The system was approved for the project by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, but hasn’t been in use as the project is being built.

At the Nantucket select board meeting Wednesday, Ms. Mohr said she talked to Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller, and he said the first 12 turbines would go dark at night starting this week.

“What they’re doing is they’re sending a helicopter over next week to test that,” Ms. Mohr said. “They expect to roll out another tranche of them the following month.”

Read the full article at Vineyard Gazette

Vineyard Offshore lays off 50 employees

February 25, 2025 — As the shadow of uncertainty continues to loom over the offshore wind industry, one company recently axed 50 positions from its payroll.

Vineyard Offshore, an offshore wind company founded by the same team that established Vineyard Wind, recently laid off 50 positions in the United States and Europe. According to a Vineyard Offshore spokesperson, the eliminated positions included unfilled roles, contractors, and staff.

The spokesperson did not say whether any of the laid off Vineyard Offshore employees were from Martha’s Vineyard or any other parts of southeastern Massachusetts, though noting that staff at Vineyard Wind would not be impacted.

“Vineyard Offshore believes that offshore wind is a vital part of the nation’s future energy independence,” a company statement reads. “Our projects will provide over 6 gigawatts of reliable and affordable energy to meet growing energy needs on the east and west coasts, while creating thousands of jobs and fueling economic growth. In an effort to position our projects for sustainable long-term success we have made the difficult decision to reduce our current team size in light of recent market uncertainties. We look forward to continuing to advance these transformative American energy projects in the years ahead.”

Read the full article at MV Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Offshore wind execs, No plans to come ashore in Westport

February 25, 2025 — Vineyard Offshore’s Rick Musiol cut right to the chase when he and a colleague stepped before the microphone Thursday afternoon to bring Westporters up to speed on a project that many fear could see high-current electric cables come ashore at Horseneck Beach, laid along the bottom of the Westport River, and finally trenched up Route 88 to points north:

“Our intent is to land our project in New London County, Connecticut,” said Musiol, the director of external affairs and community engagement for Vineyard Offshore, which is working to develop the Vineyard Wind II project off the coast of Nantucket.

His colleague, Carrie Hitt, was just as direct:

“We have no indication that we would go anywhere but New London at this point,” she said.

For more than a year, many Westporters have feared that Vineyard Offshore, which is currently building Vineyard Wind I off Martha’s Vineyard and is in the planning stages of Vineyard Wind II, would choose Westport as its preferred landing site for the 1.2 gigawatts of power the wind farm would eventually generate.

There has been good reason for that concern, as a Vineyard Offshore plan on file with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) lists Westport alongside New London as a potential landing point for that power.

Read the full article at East Bay RI

Offshore wind foes ask Trump’s Interior secretary to halt all projects

February 21, 2025 — Dozens of offshore wind opponents are lobbying the new Interior secretary to revoke authorizations for the energy projects and order an immediate stop to construction, including at Vineyard Wind, citing concerns over whales and other marine species.

President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 order on offshore wind has already had a chilling effect on the industry. It halted leasing and permitting, and ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to not only review all projects and permits, but also consider terminating leases and rescinding approvals.

This Feb. 11 request from the groups, submitted in a letter, is seeking to fast-track possible actions by the Interior Department before it completes its project-wide review.

The status of that review is unclear. The Interior Department did not provide a comment on the letter, or answer questions from The Light about the secretary’s review of permitted offshore wind projects, what it entails, and when it might be completed.

Read the full article at The New Bedford Light

Vineyard Wind must replace Canada-made turbine blades with blades made in France

January 30, 2025 — Vineyard Wind 1 is once again turning wind into electricity, even as its developer works to meet a federal mandate requiring the removal of turbine blades made at the Canadian factory where the faulty blade that collapsed last summer was produced.

Company spokesman Craig Gilvarg confirmed that one turbine is back in operation, capable of producing about 13.6 megawatts when running at full capacity.

“Vineyard Wind 1 is delivering power from one turbine, which has met the project’s stringent safety and operational conditions,” he said.

Recently, the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement fully lifted the suspension order it had placed on the project following the July 13 blade collapse at wind turbine generator AW-38 that sent debris crashing into the ocean. The action comes a little more than a month after the agency permitted installation of the first three turbine blades since the incident.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Jan. 17 also approved a revised construction and operations plan with conditions for Vineyard Wind 1, which will produce 800 megawatts of energy from 62 turbines when completed.

A root-cause analysis of the blade failure conducted by the manufacturer and installer, GE Vernova, found that the collapse was the result of a “manufacturing deviation” at the factory in Gaspé, Canada — specifically, failed bonding of materials. Although the bureau is continuing its own investigation, the revised plan acknowledges manufacturing errors in calling for Vineyard Wind to remove all Canadian-made blades installed on up to 22 turbine generators prior to the July 13 failure.

Read the full article at Cape Cod Times

Feds lift Vineyard Wind suspension order; dozens of faulty blades to be removed

January 21, 2025 — Vineyard Wind’s suspension on installing the rest of its wind farm southwest of Nantucket was lifted by the federal government Friday.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement lifted the suspension after agreeing to an addendum of Vineyard Wind’s construction and operations plan Friday, originally submitted last month, “based on revisions Vineyard Wind made to its construction and operations plan,” a BSEE spokesperson said Sunday.

Read the full article at Mass Live

Supreme Court won’t hear Vineyard Wind case; ACK for Whales files new suits

January 15, 2025 — The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear ACK for Whales‘ case against Vineyard Wind, which claimed the permitting process that allowed the 64-turbine wind farm to be built was flawed.

But the local opposition group isn’t being deterred by the latest legal setback, announcing Monday it is filing new litigation against the Department of the Interior and other federal agencies for the permitting of New England Wind, a separate proposed wind farm project 24 miles southwest of Nantucket.

ACK for Whales board member Veronica Bonnet said it was disappointing the highest court in the land did not hear the case, but that it was a long shot. Only 1% of the roughly 8,000 cases that are petitioned to the Supreme Court each year are chosen to be heard, according to the court’s website.

Read the full article at Mass Live

Supreme Court Declines To Hear Challenge Of Vineyard Wind

January 13, 2025 — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the challenge of Vineyard Wind brought by the Nantucket-based nonprofit ACK For Whales, effectively ending the group’s legal effort to stop or delay the wind farm under construction southwest of the island.

The effort to bring its case to the nation’s highest court was a long shot – as the U.S. Supreme Court accepts only 2 percent of the 7,000 cases brought to it each year – and on Monday the court informed ACK For Whales that it had declined to hear its petition for certiorari.

ACK For Whales had alleged that the federal agencies that permitted the Vineyard Wind project violated the Endangered Species Act by concluding that the project’s construction likely would not jeopardize the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. The group also asserted that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on a “flawed analysis” from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Two lower courts had previously dismissed the case, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Monday brings ACK For Whales’ legal challenge of the Vineyard Wind project to an end.

Read the full article at the Nantucket Current

MASSACHUSETTS: Nantucket plans public webinar on Vineyard Wind turbine failure

January 9, 2025 — The Town of Nantucket and federal officials are set to hold a public information session to address questions about a wind turbine blade failure that happened last summer.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Nantucket Select Board will host a Zoom webinar on Feb. 3, 2025, at 5 p.m. to discuss the July 13, 2024, Vineyard Wind turbine blade incident.

Read the full article at WUN