Thursday 24 May 2018

Vineyard Wind, which seeks to build the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, released the following statement in response to the announcement by the Massachusetts Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs) made on 23rd May, 2018, that the company’s proposed 800 megawatt (MW) wind farm and electricity transmission project will advance as a preferred solution in the Massachusetts Green Communities Act Section 83C RFP for offshore wind energy projects.

Vineyard Wind is a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID Inc. which is majority owned by Iberdrola S.A., and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) each of which own 50 percent of Vineyard Wind.

Under Massachusetts law, the selection of Vineyard Wind by the EDCs and Department of Energy Resources (DOER) allows all parties to begin negotiations to secure all necessary transmission services and power purchase agreements to facilitate the delivery of offshore wind electricity to Massachusetts customers. Once satisfactory contract terms are secured, those documents will be submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities for formal review as set forth in the in the 83C process.

Vineyard Wind is the only offshore wind farm developer to begin both the state and federal permitting processes by filing an Environmental Notification Form (ENF) and Construction and Operations plan in December 2017. Vineyard Wind’s early timeline was designed to maximize the abundant environmental, economic and energy benefits associated with utility-scale wind energy for Bay State residents and businesses. Vineyard Wind will continue to refine the project design and approach as it receives additional comments from regulators and stakeholders. Vineyard Wind received a significant volume of substantive and productive comments from the fishing industry, residents on Cape Cod and the Islands, environmental organizations, as well as regional economic and community-based stakeholders, during the initial ENF comment period.

Vineyard Wind has been especially focused on receiving input from the fishing industry and has already held more than 100 meetings with fishermen or fishing organizations since 2016. Input from those meetings is reflected within the project design as part of a broad-based effort to ensure that offshore wind facilities and the fishing sector thrive together in the decades ahead.

With passage of An Act to Promote Energy Diversity in 2016, Massachusetts required the state’s EDCs to procure 1,600 megawatts (MW) of clean, offshore wind energy within the next decade, resulting in intense competition among offshore wind lease holders for long-term contracts with utilities in Massachusetts. The addition of 1,600 MW of low-carbon wind generation capacity will provide enough clean, homegrown energy to power the equivalent of more than 750,000 Massachusetts homes every year.

Vineyard Wind recently took another significant step in its effort to build the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States by submitting the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) with state regulators. The filing advances the company’s proposal to construct an 800-megawatt (MW) wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard while maintaining Vineyard Wind’s early timetable to begin construction in 2019 and become operational by 2021. When completed, the Vineyard Wind project will reduce Massachusetts’ carbon emissions by over 1.6 million tons per year, the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars from state roads.

Vineyard Wind’s proposal committed $15 million to three initiatives designed to make Massachusetts the center of the American offshore wind industry. The commitment includes a $10 million Wind Accelerator Fund to accelerate the development of an offshore wind supply chain, businesses, and infrastructure in the Bay State by attracting investments to upgrade or create necessary facilities and/or infrastructure. The $2 million Windward Workforce program will recruit, mentor, and train residents of Massachusetts, particularly southeast Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Islands, for careers in the Commonwealth’s new offshore wind as part of an effort to build a skilled offshore wind workforce centered in southeastern Massachusetts. The $3 million Marine Mammals and Wind Fund will fund development and demonstration of innovative methods and technologies to enhance protections for marine mammals as the offshore wind industry continues to grow.