Massachusetts delays offshore wind auction
Massachusetts delays offshore wind auction | Windpower Monthly
The deadline for Massachusetts’ latest offshore wind auction has been delayed by a month to 6 September 2024, the state’s Department of Energy Resources (DER) announced.
The deadline for the request for the US state's fourth solicitation had been today (7 August).
Contracts are now due to be executed by 8 November and sent to Massachusetts’ public utilities department for approval by 18 December.
“The additional time is needed to consider any impacts to this solicitation from the recently announced federal grant to New England states through the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) grid innovation programme for projects to invest in regional electric infrastructure to ready the onshore transmission system for offshore wind,” the DER said.
The DOE announced the $389 million 'power up New England' programme on 6 August. It features significant investments in regional electric infrastructure, including proactive upgrades to points of interconnection in south-east Massachusetts and south-east Connecticut to ready the onshore transmission system for up to 4.8GW of additional offshore wind.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.