Some of the bright lights emanating from the Vineyard Wind lease area at night that have been a disturbance for Island residents could be turned off in the coming days.
According to Brooke Mohr, chair of the Nantucket select board, Vineyard Wind is testing a dozen turbines with technology that will turn blinking red lights on only when airplanes are flying overhead.
The lights have so far been blinking constantly, plane or not, despite a promise from the offshore wind developers that they would be turned off almost a year ago.
“They are sending a helicopter next week to test,” Mohr said at last week’s select board meeting.
Mohr also noted she was told by Vineyard Wind that the remaining turbines would be tested with the technology early next month, and that all new turbines constructed would be installed with it as well.
While frustrated that it had taken this long, Nantucket board members were glad progress was being made. “This is good news,” Mohr added.
Vineyard Wind has not responded to The Times for a request for comment confirming that the technology would be tested this week, or when the lights would be officially on only for airplanes.
In 2020, Vineyard Wind signed an agreement with Nantucket called the Good Neighbor Agreement, which required the developers to install aircraft detection lighting systems (ADLS). The detection system utilizes radar to ensure the lights are activated only when there is an aircraft within a certain proximity, with the goal of reducing nighttime lighting and associated visual impacts.
According to Vineyard Wind, based on the historical use of the airspace surrounding the lease area 15 miles from the Vineyard, the blinking lights “will be activated for less than four hours per year (less than 0.1 percent of the total annual nighttime hours).”
The Nantucket Current, which first reported that ADLS system testing would start this week, reported last year that Vineyard Wind originally promised that the system would be operational by May of last year, which was then pushed to June. Still, the system has not been up and running.
State Senator Julian Cyr, present at last week’s Nantucket select board board, said that the offshore wind developer’s failure to move on the ADLS system was “completely unacceptable.” He said that he would try to keep Vineyard Wind responsive to the town’s needs, noting that he had asked for an update on the radar system the day Nantucket was informed about the update.
Nantucket residents have long pushed for the service to be implemented, which was evident at last week’s meeting as select board members expressed their frustration about a lack of responsiveness from Vineyard Wind.
On the Vineyard, there has been frustration over the visual impacts as well.
Buddy Vanderhoop, a charter fishing captain who has pushed back against wind developments off the Island, recently told The Times that he can see the lights clearly from his Aquinnah home: “I look out my bedroom, living room, kitchen at night and the only thing I see is blinking red lights. It’s hideous.”
Just curious, where has vineyard wind 1 been getting it’s electricity from to keep these lights powered up for the past year +?
DIESEL GENERATORS. 🙄
Hey Jason,
Coal and natural gas are the likely fuels, with a bit of hydro and nuclear injected into the grid. All “green and clean” energy schemes have large exhaust pipes. It’s just that the exhaust pipes are far way.
John , it’s interesting isn’t it? It’s like the electric car owner with a gas generator in the trunk.
Electric cars don’t have gas generators in the trunk.
Solar panels on the car roof, possibly.
aptera.us
Solar on Every Roof
Jason — those cars are referred to as hybrids. The lights— which consume 100 watts per tower —have been powered by the grid since they hooked up to it a while ago. Any electricity they took out of the grid had been “repaid” a thousand times over already. New England has one coal burning plant in northern N.H that operates about 15 days a year.
What does it matter how they recharge the onboard batteries for the lights?
Is there a new conspiracy we have failed to hear about?
It should also be possible to put shields on the lights that block level and downwards light rays that reach ground level on the shore, yet are not blocking lights that shine upwards towards planes so that even when the lights are on they cannot be seen from the land (remember the earth is curved).
Their lights meet FAA requirements.
The lights exist to warn aircraft.
How many inches of curvature from the wind turbines to the Island.
Have you seen the Island’s historic lighthouses?
So pretty with their flashing lights.
“Lipstick on a pig”
While flashing lights steal our attention from the beauty of a starlit sky at the seaside, the main concern over offshore wind is environmental damage. Let’s not pretend that ADLS is anything more than a superficial fix; its lipstick on a pig.
The main event is the industrialization of our coast which brings destruction to the ledge & fisheries and destruction to the coastline ecology where high-voltage cables come ashore. Whales are, no doubt, dying at extraordinary levels through the installation. Birds and bats will fall prey to the turning blades. Broken blades, lubricants and other chemicals will remain a constant threat to our coast. And you won’t be able to escape the low frequency thud of the turning blades, it will eclipse the natural sounds of the ocean. It’s time to stop pretending this is a green technology.
If we don’t stop the madness now, the coast will lose its charm, people will leave, property values will tank.
The Gulf of America has had industrialization for over sixty years.
“Whales are, no doubt, dying at extraordinary levels through the installation. Birds and bats will fall prey to the turning blades.” Source?
“lubricants and other chemicals will remain a constant threat to our coast.” Like When the Bouchard No. 120 ran hit rocks off Gooseberry Point in Westport. 10 miles long and 2 miles across, heavy fuel oil.
If we don’t stop the hydrocarbon madness the coast will lose its charm, people will leave, property values will tank.
Green-Oceans.org
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