Vineyard Wind turns down the lights in bid to escape heat from critics
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Iberdrola-backed project has come under criticism for not installing lighting system sooner on GE Vernova wind turbines
Vineyard Wind has completed the integration of all installed wind turbines into a new radar-activated lighting system that it hopes will quell criticisms that it has faced over light pollution.
The 800MW project announced today that, “following months of progress and diligent work,” it had finished integrating the turbines into its Aircraft Detection Lighting System (ADLS).
This system means warning lights on the turbines only light up when an aircraft or ship is detected in the vicinity, reducing lighting to only around four hours per day.
“Recognising that this lighting system is a critical priority for our neighbouring 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,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Møller.
“This is a complex technology requiring extensive work and coordination between various contractors and construction teams,” he said. “As the project advances, the system will be integrated into additional turbines.”
Vineyard Wind, which is being developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Iberdrola subsidiary Avangrid, has been under construction at its lease site some 15 miles (24 km) off the coast of Nantucket since 2023, with expectations of completion by year’s end.
It claimed to be the first offshore wind project to voluntarily commit to installing ADLS, procuring the system from contractors including GE Vernova – the wind turbine supplier for the project – and engineering company Semco.
Vineyard had pledged to install the system as part of its Community Benefits Agreement made to the Nantucket community.
However, with at least 17 turbines sending power to the grid and over 20 fully installed, the project had come in for criticism just this week for not yet fulfilling that promise.
Greg Werkheiser, a lawyer with Cultural Heritage Partners representing Nantucket, recently said that the explanations for why it had not yet been integrated into all those turbines had been “convoluted, inconsistent and unsatisfactory.”