Bid into Massachusetts Offshore Wind RFP Delivers Transformational Supply Chain Investments and Jobs
“COMMONWEALTH WIND” WILL CEMENT STATE’S LEADERSHIP POSITION IN A GROWING RENEWABLE ENERGY INDUSTRY
(NEW BEDFORD, MA) – Vineyard Wind, a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), today submitted two proposals in response to the Request for Proposals (RFP) for offshore wind energy projects in Massachusetts.
The “Commonwealth Wind” proposals offer options of approximately 800 megawatts (MW) and 1,200 MWs of clean and affordable energy and outline hundreds of millions of investments in offshore wind infrastructure, the creation of thousands of jobs and substantial commitments to environmental justice communities.
“Just one day after announcing that Vineyard Wind has brought the nation’s first large-scale offshore wind farm to financial close, we are incredibly proud to submit our ‘Commonwealth Wind’ proposals. We have used all of our experience with our existing portfolio to put together an incredibly strong proposal that, if selected, will ensure Massachusetts benefits significantly from its first-mover status in pioneering offshore wind at scale in the U.S.,” said Lars T. Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind. “We have deliberately named our proposals ‘Commonwealth Wind’ to underline the broad benefit of affordable energy to the entire Commonwealth as well as the significant economic benefits that will be delivered to multiple regions of Massachusetts.”
“Commonwealth Wind builds on our strong track record of successfully developing and financing offshore wind projects to deliver clean energy to Massachusetts,” said Bill White, Head of U.S. Offshore Wind for Avangrid Renewables. “We look forward to working with community leaders across the Commonwealth to create good paying jobs, continue addressing the urgent climate challenge, and bring transformational investments across the state.”
“This proposal underscores CIP’s commitment to developing a robust offshore wind industry in the U.S. while also showing the tremendous potential for investment and job creation at a large scale,” said Christian T. Skakkebæk, Senior Partner and Co-founder of CIP.
Commonwealth Wind will be developed in an area just south of the company’s Vineyard Wind 1 and Park City Wind projects. Commonwealth Wind will adhere to the 1 x 1 nautical mile spacing between turbines, which was endorsed by the United States Coast Guard as the preferred layout for safety and navigation.
Currently, Vineyard Wind has 1604 MWs of clean and affordable wind energy under development for Massachusetts (Vineyard Wind 1) and Connecticut (Park City Wind). Since 2017, the Vineyard Wind 1 project has been through an unprecedented and extensive public review process that generated more than 30,000 public comments, more than 90% of which supported the project. The Construction and Operations Plan (COP) was reviewed by more than two dozen federal, state, and local agencies over the course of more than three and a half years. Park City Wind started its federal review process in 2021 and is currently undergoing review at the local, state and federal levels.
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About Vineyard Wind
Vineyard Wind LLC is an offshore wind development company that will build the first commercial scale offshore wind energy project in the U.S., to be located 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Vineyard Wind, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, is 50 percent owned by funds of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and 50 percent by Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID, Inc. (NYSE: AGR). For more information, visit www.vineyardwind.com.
