Liz Burdock, the Executive Director of the Business Network for Offshore Wind shares this statement regarding Governor Charlie Baker and the State of Massachusetts’ major investment in offshore wind:
“Governor Charlie Baker and the State of Massachusetts have taken one of the most important steps many states want and need to take. Generating more jobs through a cost-efficient and environmentally safe industry is the definition of offshore wind development.
All states will benefit from Massachusetts’ bold leadership to procure large-scale offshore wind as this 1,200-MW procurement will drive costs down in future projects with its technology implementation and the establishment of a US supply chain. Offshore wind costs will continue to drop to a price point that will make it competitive with other forms of electricity generation very quickly. Studies are showing that the market value of electricity from offshore wind is beginning to exceed its cost in several New England states.
Vineyard Wind, a partnership between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), has been selected for an 800-MW wind farm. The Network is also proud to report that Deepwater Wind has received an additional 400 MW contract from Rhode Island for their Revolution Wind project as part of the Massachusetts bid.
This announcement is significant and a critical milestone to firmly establish the Nation’s offshore wind market and offshore wind as a U.S. clean energy economic engine. After today, there is no slowing down, only rapid growth with developers and supply chain companies making more investments, local residents being trained and ports bustling with new activity.
Every U.S. city and state committed to reducing carbon emissions and meeting their Renewable Portfolio Standard goals should consider offshore wind as part of their renewable energy portfolio. The scale of these projects is driving down costs to the point that virtual power purchase agreements could make offshore wind a viable, clean energy choice even for cities and states without coastlines.
We congratulate Deepwater Wind and Avangrid Renewables, both members of the Business Network, with this huge success. We look forward to working with both Vineyard Wind and Deepwater Wind to firmly establish the US Offshore Wind Supply Chain.”
Source: windpowerengineering
