Massachusetts and Rhode Island procure almost 2.9GW of offshore wind

US states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have awarded contracts to three projects and procured 2,878MW of offshore wind capacity.

Massachusetts has selected a total of 2,678MW – 1,087MW of the 1,287MW available from Ocean Wind’s SouthCoast Wind multistate project, 791MW from Avangrid’s New England Wind 1 project, and up to 800MW from CIP and Iberdrola’s 1,200MW Vineyard Wind 2 project.

Through this procurement, offshore wind will power over 1.4m Massachusetts homes and will represent nearly 20% of its overall electric demand.

Rhode Island on the other hand has chosen to procure the remaining 200MW from SouthCoast Wind. This will power around 200,000 homes in the state.

SouthCoast Wind is expected to start construction in 2025 and is expected to deliver power by 2030. Avangrid’s New England Wind 1 can begin construction as early as next year, with an expected commercial operations date in 2029 while the Vineyard Wind 2 was proposed in late March this year.

“Simply put, we are going big. This selection is New England’s and Massachusetts’ largest offshore wind selection to date. We’ll power 1.4m more Massachusetts homes with clean, renewable energy, create thousands of good, union jobs, and generate billions of dollars in economic activity. The world will look to New England for the future of clean energy,” said Massachusetts governor Maura Healey.