Posted on March 13, 2026
Key Points
- The Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project is closer to being finished, after the final turbine blades were shipped out of New Bedford.
- The project was nearly killed by the Trump administration in late December.
- The company was granted a preliminary injunction to restart construction in late January.
- New Bedford has been a major shipping hub for the project’s components.
NEW BEDFORD — The last shipment of turbine blades for the $4.5 billion Vineyard Wind 1 project headed to the site south of Martha’s Vineyard this week.
The project had been in danger of stalling when the Trump administration in late December issued a stop-work order.
U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the company a preliminary injunction on Jan. 27 allowing Vineyard Wind 1 to restart full construction activities in its lease area about 12 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard while a broader legal challenge moves through the court system.
“The deployment of the final major components of the Vineyard Wind project represents the closing argument of the case we have been making for years: that New Bedford is well-suited to be a center of the offshore wind industry,” New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said. “No matter when the next projects are ready to proceed, we and our many partners have shown that the industry can successfully compete and operate projects from here while working cooperatively with the fishing industry.”
Ruling blocked a suspension order issued by Dept. of Interior
The Jan. 27 ruling blocked a Dec. 22 suspension order issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to five major East Coast offshore wind projects, including Vineyard Wind.
Two men walk along the Blue Lane along West Rodney French Boulevard in New Bedford on March 4. In the distance a barge can be seen bringing wind turbine blades to the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm. The last shipment of turbine blades for the $4.5 billion Vineyard Wind 1 project left New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal on March 10.
According to documents filed with the U.S. District Court in January, at the time the project was 95% finished, with 61 of 62 turbines installed and 44 turbines already commissioned to produce 572 megawatts of the project’s 800-megawatt capacity. The company had been looking to finish the project, which began construction in 2022, by March 31.
Offshore wind battle: Vineyard Wind 1 blows past federal stop-work order, project to resume
All five were granted injunctions. Revolution Wind, Empire Wind and Coastal Virginia all received injunctions from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier in January. Sunrise Wind’s was approved Feb. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Vineyard Wind did not respond to a request for comment
Vineyard Wind did not respond to a request for comment on the last shipment of turbine blades shipping out on March 10.
“Vineyard Wind will focus on working in coordination with its contractors, the federal government, and other relevant stakeholders and authorities to safely restart activities, as it continues to deliver a critical source of new power to the New England region.”
The Department of the Interior had announced it was suspending construction on the five projects in December 2025 “due to national security risks identified by the Department of War in recently completed classified reports. This pause will give the Department, along with the Department of War and other relevant government agencies, time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects.”
Unclassified reports from the U.S. Government have found that the movement of massive turbine blades and the highly reflective towers create radar interference called “clutter,” according to a press release issued by the Department of the Interior in December 2025.
Clutter can obscure legitimate moving targets and generate false targets in the vicinity of the wind projects, according to the release.
