Ryan Pollin, ERS for Zondits, June 1, 2018
Last Wednesday, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker announced that Vineyard Wind, a collaboration between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, has won a contract from the state to build 800 MW of offshore wind south of Martha’s Vineyard. The plant will begin construction in 2019 and will be operating by 2021. An additional 400 MW offshore wind project, Bay State Wind, was rejected. A 2016 state law mandated the procurement of 1,600 MW of offshore wind energy in the coming decade, and Vineyard Wind will be the first step toward meeting that objective. On the same day, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced the winner of a different 400 MW offshore wind project, Deepwater Wind. The United States’ first and only operating offshore wind farm was constructed by Deepwater Wind off the southern coast of Block Island, which has been providing 30 MW of generation capacity to Rhode Island since 2016.
The graphic below shows the successfully negotiated Vineyard Wind and Deepwater Wind project proposals, as well as the rejected Bay State Wind project.
