BOSTON — Massachusetts is “going big” with wind power by teaming up with neighboring Rhode Island on what is being described as the “largest” offshore procurement in New England history.
The procurement, jointly announced by the two states on Friday, calls for a total 2,678 megawatts of offshore wind power spread across all three projects that submitted bids earlier this year which, when completed, will be capable of providing enough electricity to power more than 1.4 million homes.
“Simply put, we are going big,” Gov. Maura Healey said in remarks on Friday. “We’ll power 1.4 million more Massachusetts homes with clean, renewable energy, create thousands of good, union jobs, and generate billions of dollars in economic activity. The world will look to New England for the future of clean energy.”
Under the plans, Massachusetts has chosen 1,087 of the 1,287 megawatt SouthCoast Wind project, with the remaining 200 going to Rhode Island. Massachusetts also selected New England Wind 1, a 719 megawatt project, and seeks up to 800 megawatts of wind power from the Vineyard Wind 2 project, the Healey administration said.
Details of the contracts, such as the price tag and how much of those costs would be passed along to energy consumers, weren’t disclosed by Healey’s office.
“Today marks a pivotal moment for New England’s energy future, one where offshore wind will help meet Massachusetts’ and Rhode Island’s ambitious climate goals and the increasing demand for electricity,” Craig Windram, CEO of Ocean Winds, the developer of SouthCoast Wind, said in a statement.
To be sure, the regional procurement is smaller than the maximum amount of wind power generation the state is authorized for under law, or 3,600 megawatts. It also doesn’t include Connecticut, which was part of the original tri-state consortium.
Overall the move is part of a regional strategy in New England, and elsewhere on the East Coast, to address energy and climate issues, rather than a state-by-state approach. Some states, like New Jersey, have struggled to go it alone on offshore wind and have ended up scrapping some projects.
Massachusetts state law mandates generating 5,600 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2027, as part of the state’s ambitious effort to reduce its excess greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero over 1990 levels.
“Offshore wind is a critical tool in fighting climate change,” Commissioner of Energy Resources Elizabeth Mahony said Friday. “Every year of progress we make in fostering this important clean energy source is a step closer to ending our reliance on costly and polluting fossil fuels.”
Earlier this year, the state broke ground on a new offshore wind port in Salem and expanded a wind terminal in New Bedford, two of several coastal communities that will serve as staging areas for the projects.
In August, The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $389 million to Massachusetts and several New England states for improvements to the power grid aimed at significantly increasing the region’s capacity for offshore wind.
The Power Up New England plan — a collaboration between Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont and several utilities — calls for expanding and upgrading the shared interconnection points for undersea cables that bring power from offshore wind turbines to the regional grid.
But the latest procurement comes amid increasing turbulence in the nation’s nascent offshore wind industry. Developers are scaling back — or in some cases backing out of projects — citing supply chain disruptions, higher construction costs and a lack of tax credits from the states and federal government.
Two major offshore wind developers in Massachusetts — Commonwealth Wind and Shell and Ocean Winds North America — terminated their power purchase agreements with the state’s utilities last year, citing supply chain issues and other concerns that have made it too difficult to finance the projects.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell has urged the Healey administration not to seek the full 3,600 megawatts of wind power the state is authorized to pursue. She argues that the move “could lock ratepayers into massive long-term offshore wind generation contracts at a time when the cost of those contracts is at an unprecedented high.”
“Like any new industry, offshore wind has faced headwinds, but our coalition of states is rising to meet the challenges and seize the tremendous economic, climate, and energy opportunities on the other side,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said on Friday.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.