Ørsted, Avangrid and two others submit bids to first-ever 3-state offshore wind solicitation
Ørsted, Avangrid and two others submit bids to first-ever 3-state offshore wind solicitation | Utility Dive
Dive Brief:
- Offshore wind developers Ørsted, Avangrid, SouthCoast Wind and Vineyard Offshore announced Wednesday that they had submitted bids to a joint offshore wind solicitation from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
- The window for bidding into the regional solicitation closed at noon Wednesday. The three states were the first in the U.S. to sign a memorandum of understanding on offshore wind procurement, and this was the first-ever tri-state bidding process.
- “We look forward to evaluating the submitted proposals received under this RFP over the coming months, and coordinating review of any multi-state proposals received with Massachusetts and Rhode Island,” Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes said in a release.
Dive Insight:
Dykes said that DEEP expects to announce in the third quarter of this year whether the state plans to move forward with power purchase agreements for any of the proposals it received. The solicitation sought up to 6,800 MW of offshore wind.
Vineyard Offshore — a joint venture owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables — said Wednesday that it had proposed a 1,200-MW Vineyard Wind 2 project to each of the three states individually as well as the three together.
The company said its goal is to “provide substantial investments in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, responding to the solicitation’s aim of creating cross-cutting regional economic impact.”
Ørsted said it proposed a 1,184-MW Starboard Wind project to Connecticut and Rhode Island, delivering power to both, with plans to stage the wind farm from ports in the Connecticut coastal town of New London.
Rebecca Ullman, director of external affairs for SouthCoast Wind, said the company submitted a bid to all three states for a project with 1,200 MW of capacity.
“The first ever tri-state offshore wind solicitation demonstrates an unshakable commitment to a clean energy future for all and we are proud to submit our bid,” SouthCoast Wind’s CEO Michael Brown said in a release.
In addition to the Vineyard Wind 2 proposal submitted by its subsidiary in the Vineyard Offshore joint venture, Avangrid submitted proposals for two New England Wind projects: the 791-MW New England Wind 1 and 1,080-MW New England Wind 2. New England Wind 1 would border Vineyard Wind 1, an 800-MW project which first delivered power to the grid in January and is set to be complete by the end of this year.
“Avangrid submitted a bid for New England Wind 1, a second bid for New England Wind 1 and 2 combined, and additional bids for single-state procurements in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island,” the company said in a release.
New England Wind 1 is an existing project formerly known as Park City Wind. Last year, Avangrid unsuccessfully tried to negotiate a new contract for the project with Connecticut, then it canceled it and paid the state a $16 million penalty so it could rebid. Avangrid described the New England 1 project as “exceptionally advanced and shovel-ready.”
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.