Community Foundation Distributes Latest Round Of Offshore Wind Fund Grants

The Community Foundation for Nantucket has announced the second round of grants from its so-called Offshore Wind Community Fund that was established as part of the  “Good Neighbor Agreement” between the Town of Nantucket, the Nantucket Preservation Trust, and Vineyard Wind. The grants, totaling $150,000, went to seven island organizations for solar projects, coastal resilience, and building salvage.

The Offshore Wind Community Fund is separate from the Community Impact Fund created as part of a mitigation deal between electricity giant GE Vernova and the town after a GE Vernova-manufactured Vineyard Wind turbine blade collapsed into the ocean in July of 2024, scattering debris across the region and Nantucket's beaches. Vineyard Wind is not a part of that settlement, and it remains in active negotiations with the town over the blade failure, which have been underway behind closed doors with no public update for months.

The Offshore Wind Community Fund was one of the key concessions secured by the town in earlier negotiations with the offshore wind developer before the project was operational, forming a critical piece of the agreement that largely secured the town’s official support for the installation. In total, Vineyard Wind will pay the town around $16 million.

The goal of the fund is to support community projects and initiatives related to protecting, restoring, and preserving cultural and historic resources, coastal resiliency, climate adaptation, and renewable energy.

This year’s recipients are:

• the Albert F. Egan, Jr. and Dorothy H. Egan Foundation, for an ecological restoration and land management plan for the Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum Property;
• the Camp Richard Campers Association, for a solar array project and heat pump installation;
• Housing Nantucket, for solar panel installations;
• Linda Loring Nature Foundation, for a solar installation project;
• the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, for increasing salt marsh resilience at the Medouie Creek Marsh;
• Nantucket Deconstruction and Salvage, for the expansion of a deconstruction and salvage pilot project;
• and the Tuckernuck Land Trust, for a field station solar upgrade.

The first round of grants, totaling $780,000, were awarded in May of 2024 to around two dozen island organizations. The complete list is available here.

Grant requests are reviewed and evaluated by a seven-member Advisory Committee. The members of this advisory committee are Nantucket Preservation Trust executive director Mary Bergman, Nantucket Preservation Trust board vice president Christian Hoffman, Preservation Institute Nantucket director Cleary Larkin, Nantucket Finance Committee member Jeremy Bloomer, Nantucket Planning Board alternate Howard Matz, Nantucket Coastal Conservancy Director Maureen Phillips, Vineyard Wind community liaison Dana Rebeiro, and Nantucket energy coordinator Lauren Sinatra. The grant funding decisions were made with support from the Community Foundation for Nantucket.

The Maria Mitchell Association was an initial signatory of the Good Neighbor Agreement, but withdrew the October after the blade failure.