EBC Tenth Annual Offshore Wind Conference: T-minus 7 years to 30GW by 2030

We are 7 years away from the Biden Administration’s goal of achieving 30 Gigawatts of Offshore Wind by 2030.  The past year saw many positive developments in support of this ambitious goal. Massachusetts has announced plans to expand the Commonwealths’ offshore wind goal to 11,000 MW; The August 2022 “Inflation Reduction Act” provides ~$100 billion in renewable energy tax incentives.  New England continues to be in great position for reaping the environmental, economic and social benefits of building commercial-scale offshore wind energy.

Here in Massachusetts, Vineyard Wind LLC, a joint venture of AVANGRID and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, is building the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project, located 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.  The first year of construction has focused on the onshore substation, the duct bank system for ~4.5 miles of underground cables, the horizontal directional drilling shoreline transition at Covell’s Beach in Barnstable and the initial runs of offshore cable  When completed in 2024, Vineyard Wind  will generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses, create an estimated 3,600 full time equivalent job years, save their electricity customers an estimated $1.4 billion over the first 20 years of operation, and reduce carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million metric tons per year (the equivalent of taking 325,000 cars off the road annually).

A second utility scale project, South Fork, is under construction in federal waters off Rhode Island.  Jointly owned by Orsted and Eversource, this 132 MW twelve turbine project will provide renewable energy to the New York grid via a connection in the Town of East Hampton NY.  The South Fork project is located about 35 miles east of Montauk Point, and BOEM approved the Project’s COP in January 2021.  Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.   Updates on construction progress for both Vineyard Wind 1 and South Fork will be provided at the conference.

Active permitting efforts are underway for several major projects off the southern New England coast, including Revolution Wind, Park City Wind, SouthCoast Wind (formerly Mayflower Wind), Sunrise and Beacon Wind.  Offshore Wind Port planning and development activity is advancing in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. The SouthCoast Wind project, owned by Shell and Ocean Winds (a joint venture between Engie and EDP Renewables) were awarded PPAs for their first 1,200 MW in 2019 and 2021 and are advancing through permitting.

Off the coast of Maine, RWE Renewables Americas and Diamond Offshore Wind are advancing their New England Aqua Ventus LLC (NEAV) floating wind demonstration project. NEAV uses a concrete semi-submersible floating platform supporting a 10-12 MW commercial wind turbine and is in a federally designated area 2 miles south of the island of Monhegan, 14 miles offshore.

In October 2022, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources and Rhode Island Energy, a PPL company, announced its procurement process for 600-to-1,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy.   Rhode Island Energy is considering a series of non-pricing criteria in the proposals, including statewide economic impacts, proposed labor agreements, siting and permitting and an Environmental Impacts and Environmental and Fisheries Mitigation Plan. Proposals are expected to create benefits in social, environmental justice, economic development, job creation and port development. In addition to the RI procurement, the first half of 2023 is expected to bring additional procurements from NYSERDA and Massachusetts.   In a related development, AVANGRID made a recent filing with the MA Department of Public Utilities (DPU) indicating that its 1,232 MW Commonwealth Wind project, under the terms of an earlier award, was no longer commercially viable due to unexpected and unforeseeable cost escalation.  Given DPU’s denial of a request to renegotiate the original power purchase agreement, AVANGRID expects to rebid the project into an upcoming Massachusetts procurement.

This year’s EBC offshore wind conference will start off with an update from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) will provide an update and forecast on offshore wind procurement in the Commonwealth. Representatives from port facilities and wind developers will summarize their progress and outlook for their projects.

We will also include an update on trends and innovations driving the industry including new technical engineering guidance from National Renewable Energy Laboratory and American Clean Power, new research on gravity-based foundations from Tufts and improved efficiency of offshore wind production by MIT, advancements in floating wind, lessons learned from litigation, and draft guidance to improve the federal permitting process.

The conference will conclude with the ever popular “developer update” presentations!  We invite you to join us in person for what promises to be an exciting and informative half day event.

General Continuing Education Certificates are awarded by the EBC for this program (3.5 training contact hours). Please select this option during registration if you wish to receive a certificate.