Offshore wind RfP in Massachusetts selects 1.6 GW of winning bids

Massachusetts will procure power from 1,600 MW of offshore wind projects by Mayflower Wind LLC and Vineyard Wind LLC after selecting their bids as the ones bringing “the greatest overall value” to customers.

The developers participated in a Request for Proposals (RfP) released in May. Their status as winners in the solicitation enables them to move forward to contract negotiations, the Massachusetts government said on Friday. Final contracts will be awarded following successful contract negotiations and regulatory clearance.

Mayflower Wind, a joint venture (JV) between Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s (AMS:RDSA) Shell New Energies US LLC and Ocean Winds North America LLC, has secured 400 MW of capacity with a proposal that calls for over USD 42 million (EUR 37.3m) in economic development initiatives across the South Coast region. Apart from turbine installation in the area located south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, the scheme envisages the construction of an operations and maintenance (O&M) port in Fall River. Overall, the project is set to create around 14,000 jobs. It is seen to be completed in the mid to late 2020s.

Mayflower Wind’s proposal was one of three that took part in the RfP, with the largest one being a 1,200-MW project. The company said it will start developing the federal lease area and continue pursuing additional energy contracts until the full 2,000 MW lease capacity is realised.

Meanwhile, Vineyard Wind LLC, a JV between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), has won 1,200 MW with the bigger version of its Commonwealth Wind scheme. Its other proposal was for an 800-MW variant.

Commonwealth Wind is set to be installed in an area located in proximity to the 800-MW Vineyard Wind 1 and 804-MW Park City Wind projects.

Massachusetts aims at contracting 5,600 MW of offshore wind turbine capacity by 2027 in line with its 2050 net-zero commitment. The RfP was its third procurement exercise to support the target.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.889)

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