Vineyard Wind's turbine blade splintered into pieces, sending debris onto Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard beaches.
Photographer: Steve Heaslip/Cape Cod Times/USA TODAY NETWORK
Shattered Wind Blade Puts Nantucket on Frontlines of a Clean-Energy Fight
After Vineyard Wind’s broken blade polluted Nantucket beaches, some locals feel the wealthy Massachusetts island has become a casualty in the war against climate change.
Weeks after a busted wind turbine washed onto Nantucket shores, residents of this wealthy Massachusetts enclave are still angry. Some even liken the accident to an oil spill.
While their ire belies the fleeting nature of the event — waters were re-opened for swimming within 24 hours — the sense of harm felt by the community threatens to cast a long shadow. Vineyard Wind's project south of Nantucket is the fledgling industry's marquee venture, heralding a massive buildout of wind energy that would provide coastal cities with zero-carbon electricity. What happens here could have implications for a raft of other projects planned off Martha’s Vineyard, Atlantic City and elsewhere on the Eastern seaboard.