Islanders can expect fewer blinking red lights along the southern shore after Vineyard Wind has turned on its long-awaited aircraft light system this past week. 

For months, both Vineyarders and Nantucketers have complained about the constant blinking of the lights on top of the offshore wind energy farm’s turbines. The lights are designed to only come on when aircraft fly overhead, but, during construction, have stayed blinking. 

Vineyard Wind on Friday announced that it completed the integration of the aircraft detection lighting system (ADLS), just days after the town of Nantucket threatened legal action over the lights and other complaints. 

The system is a requirement from the Federal Aviation Administration to help pilots with navigation. In a statement, Vineyard Wind CEO Klaus Moeller said that getting the lights working was critical for the Islands. 

“This is a complex technology requiring extensive work and coordination between various contractors and construction teams, and I would like to thank them for their efforts in activating this system as commissioning continues,” he said. 

Vineyard Wind has 23 turbines built and 17 are generating power, the farm’s parent company said last month. As construction continues, the system will be integrated into the additional turbines, according to Vineyard Wind. 

Nantucket officials have demanded change from Vineyard Wind based on several alleged inadequacies. The activation of the light system was the first substantive response to the town’s demands at the wind farm.

“Subject to verification from the Town that the turbines are not just hooked up to the systems, but that the system is working properly and reliably, the Town welcomes this announcement,” the town said in a statement.

The lights have been on since January 2024, and, according to Nantucket, Vineyard Wind has given “convoluted, inconsistent, and unsatisfactory” explanations for why the system to cease the constant blinking hadn’t been activeated earlier. 

The town had called for $25,000 a day per turbine for each day that the light system was not active. 

Fred Khedouri, a Vineyard resident who has been critical of Vineyard Wind’s rollout of the lighting system, appreciated Nantucket’s efforts around offshore wind. 

“After over 15 months of being assured that the ADLS would be operational ‘soon,’ we owe many thanks to the Nantucket select board,” he told the Gazette. “They kept up the pressure on Vineyard Wind, unlike the putative federal regulators at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management who failed for two years to enforce the terms of the permit.” 

Mr. Khedouri said that the project is still creating major light pollution via the large service platform, which he said was “lit up like Times Square.”

“The delays and misrepresentations about the activation of the ADLS are consistent with their disingenuous response to the catastrophic blade failure last summer,” he said. “They don’t seem to care about the negative impacts their project has on the Island.”

Vineyard Wind, the first utility-scale offshore wind project to get approvals in the U.S., is expected to be completed by the end of the year, company officials said last month.