Another offshore wind development south of Martha’s Vineyard is pulling the plug, at least for the time being.
The developers behind Beacon Wind, which was hoping to build 155 turbines to power an estimated 1 million homes, issued a statement saying the project, 20 miles south of Nantucket and next to Vineyard Wind, was no longer viable in the near term.
“Unfortunately, in the present environment, we see no viable path to the development of our Beacon Wind project, and have concluded that we cannot continue our investment in the market,” the company, JERA Nex BP, noted in a statement published in Maritime Executive. “The U.S. is a market with significant long-term potential for offshore wind, which we still believe can play a key role in the country’s energy transition.”
JERA Nex BP is a collaboration between Britain’s BP and Japan’s JERA. The company added in its statement that it will be retaining the lease rights, and wait for a more favorable time.
Beacon is the latest offshore wind development to be shelved indefinitely amid the Trump administration’s flurry of moves to disrupt the industry. Investors behind SouthCoast Wind, a 2.4-gigawatt project about 25 miles off the Vineyard, announced last spring that they would likely hold off on the project for four years. Over the summer, the administration initiated a stop-work order against Revolution Wind, a nearly completed project 12 miles off Aquinnah, though that company has pushed back against the decision, successfully, in the courts.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) opened the Beacon Wind proposal up for public comment in February 2024. The first phase was expected to provide 1,230 megawatts of power to New York; a second phase would connect to the grid along the East Coast, from New Jersey to Massachusetts.
JERA Nex BP announced that there would be layoffs associated with its decision. It also notes that it wasn’t just the Trump administration that is causing setbacks, but there are also issues with the supply chain, causing disruptions.
“As a result of this decision, all U.S.-based team members and some others supporting the Beacon project will leave the company in the coming months,” the company said in a statement to the Nantucket Current. “This decision reflects the challenging macroeconomic and supply chain environment currently facing offshore wind globally, which has impacted the viability of many projects across the sector.”
Beacon Wind was awarded its lease in 2018, in the same auction as Vineyard Wind.
The halt to the offshore wind project off Martha’s Vineyard should be seen for what it truly is — not a brief “pause,” but the first real acknowledgment that this entire approach is unsustainable.
For years, residents were told offshore wind would bring clean energy and jobs. Instead, we’ve seen broken promises, turbine failures, ballooning costs, and a staggering environmental toll. Marine scientists have raised alarms about how pile driving, heavy shipping traffic, and undersea cabling disrupt the migration and feeding patterns of whales, dolphins, and fish that define these waters. Even one halted turbine means fewer decibels pounding into the seafloor and one less hazard for marine life.
Let’s stop pretending that massive industrial infrastructure belongs in one of the most sensitive ecosystems on the East Coast. This halt should be a turning point — a chance to admit that the “green” label can’t mask ecological damage, financial waste, and aesthetic loss.
Offshore wind isn’t being paused. It’s being quietly shelved, and that’s a good thing. The ocean doesn’t need saving by destroying it.
It has provided jobs, at least 100 for locals, at $100k+.
Is the Gulf of America destroyed?
Trump shuts off the golden government money hose and the foreign companies back out
Is that because wind power isn’t sustainable without massive government subsidies?
The democrats are not pushing back on this.
Is it because they don’t want to point out that foreign companies benefit most, or did their campaign fund checks already clear?
Profitable , rather than sustainable, is the word you’re searching for. Nothing puzzling, It’s just capitalism. There are different pigs at the trough, familiar old pigs who aren’t done using corporate socialism as part of their business profit structure. Trump didn’t shut off the hose , He’s opened the valve further but the revenue and gain is simply flowing elsewhere. Are you concerned about all of the subsidies and tax breaks to all of the industries? Are you concerned about all of the campaign fund checks and all foreign corporate interests? Socialism for the wealthy is not new and it’s certainly not exclusive to Democrats.
How much are US companies/staff benefiting from wind.
Vineyard Wind and it’s vendors are paying over$ 10,000,000 a year in regional wages.
Not to mention local purchases, fuel and supplies.
Locals are given a preference, (my son for one, he didn’t need it, he is over qualified).
How much oil money has MAGA received?
Dems are not pushing back because they are embarrassed. They want green and solar and all the other climate change stuff but then they dont see the savings and also cater to the Indians and their sacred rights not to have windmills. They are of two minds. Green but not whales, no fossil fuels but no blades in the ocean. They are schizophrenic.
Strike while the iron is hot. They should have built the wind turbines sooner.
Too bad for JERA Nex BP. The trump administration is so destructive.
This republican scam to shut down wind power is a money play by the coal-turned-nuclear billionaires.
I drove along Middle road in Chilmark a couple of days ago for the first time in quite a while, and gazed out at one of my – and I’m sure, everybody’s – favorite views, through the fields and past the pond and woods to the Atlantic Ocean beyond, and the view of the very large and very prominent spinning windmills hit me like a sucker punch. The wind industry has destroyed the environment they were trying to save, all for negligible returns. Absolutely disgusting. Shame shame shame!
Sara, were there powerlines, telephone poles, houses and cars in your view? How are they powered? So it’s just about your view and to hell with all those people who live near fossil fuel power stations and kids go to school under that cloud but your view needs to stay huh?
Why should the uranium mining for your nuclear power destroy the beauty in another gorgeous location? Is it right to preserve a beautiful view here and destroy someone else’s beautiful view so you can have lights on in your house?
Have driven along the Gulf Of America?
Were you sucker punched by the drill rig and production platforms?
Should you be exempt from having to see the means of production the energy you consume.
Are you selfish?
Have you seen what was the pristine beauty of the Gulf Of America?
Absolutely disgusting.
Shame shame shame!