NANTUCKET – Vineyard Wind, the Town of Nantucket, and island nonprofits have announced plans to create The Nantucket Offshore Wind Community Fund.
The fund will support local initiatives to combat the effects of global climate change, enhance coastal resiliency, and protect, restore, and preserve Nantucket’s cultural and historic resources.
Vineyard Wind has agreed to provide an initial $4 million when construction financing is obtained for its first project to seed the Fund, which will be administered by the Community Foundation for Nantucket.
When its projects move forward, Vineyard Wind will provide additional funding to further support the Fund, which will also accept contributions from other wind developers and philanthropists.
The parties will work closely together to further engage the Nantucket community to ensure that residents and interested parties are informed of the Vineyard Wind projects and the associated community benefits.
“We’re pleased to reach this agreement, and look forward to a long and collaborative relationship with the community of Nantucket in the years ahead,” said Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen.
“Our goal is to not only set the best industry standards, but to also be good neighbors as we work to launch an industry that will create thousands of jobs and take major steps forward in the fight against climate change.”
Vineyard Wind is developing the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind project in the U.S., to be located approximately fifteen miles from Madaket Beach, its closest point on Nantucket.
“When we first learned of the planned wind project, we were especially concerned about visual impacts because our entire Island is a National Historic Landmark,” said Nantucket Town Manager C. Elizabeth Gibson.
“But Vineyard Wind’s top executives worked constructively with Nantucket leadership to resolve these concerns. They agreed to move the first row of turbines farther away from Nantucket, to install a lighting system that will be activated only when planes are nearby that reduces nighttime lighting to fewer than four hours per year, and to paint the turbines an off-white color to reduce their visibility.”
In addition to design changes, Vineyard Wind worked with the Town, the Maria Mitchell Association (MMA), and the Nantucket Preservation Trust (NPT) to create a fund to support community-led projects.
“This creates a model for other offshore wind companies to follow when engaging with Nantucket,” said Dawn Hill Holdgate, Chair of the Town’s Select Board.
The Advisory Committee for the Fund will include representatives from the Town, MMA, NPT, and Vineyard Wind.
“We are proud to host this Fund and excited to see how it benefits the entire Nantucket community,” said Community Foundation Executive Director Margaretta Andrews.
The town is expected to announce more details about the Fund in the coming months, with plans for the Fund to issue its first grants in late 2021.
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