BOSTON (SHNS) – As the governor declared in New Bedford on Wednesday that Massachusetts is where offshore wind was “born in this country, and where it’s going to take off from,” the Senate advanced a series of policies that could be key to a potential revitalization.
Healey joined labor leaders, union workers and offshore wind industry representatives to cheer the completion of the Vineyard Wind 1 project, the first offshore wind farm selected to serve Massachusetts under a 2016 clean energy law. It is also likely to be the only Massachusetts offshore wind project to become a reality this decade as the industry faces difficult political and economic conditions that have also led to a reevaluation of the state’s climate and emissions plans and policies.
“We’re going to continue full steam ahead, because, you know, I think Americans are fed up. They want energy that they can rely on, they want energy that they can afford. That’s what this project gives us. We want bills that we can manage, we want clean air, we want investments to flow into our communities rather than into the pockets of utility executives and countries far, far away from here,” Healey said. “So I want you to know that I think this is an example of the importance of staying the course on something, to not be daunted, to not be deterred, to not be distracted. Just like, do it the Massachusetts way — nose to the grindstone, stay with it. It pays off.”
The state’s fourth and most recent procurement for offshore wind has been essentially paused for more than a year and is running about two years behind schedule. Through its first three rounds of bidding, Massachusetts had procured a total of 3,200 megawatts of capacity from offshore wind power: 800 MW from Vineyard Wind 1 in 2017, a cumulative 1,200 MW from SouthCoast Wind split between 2019 and 2021 procurement rounds, and 1,200 MW from Commonwealth Wind in 2021.
But 75% of the power in the pipeline was eliminated in 2023 when Commonwealth Wind and SouthCoast Wind scrapped their contracts citing shifting economic conditions that made the projects no longer financially viable at the prices they previously negotiated. Vineyard Wind 1 was the only project left standing, and the state’s offshore wind future has become clouded.
But those who think the second term of a Donald Trump presidency has driven offshore wind into a hole so deep that the industry will not be able to rebound when the longstanding wind opponent is not longer president are “unduly pessimistic,” Sen. Michael Barrett said, citing conversations he and his office have had with industry executives.
“We’ve asked them when they’re ready to come back in state after Mr. Trump leaves office, and the answer is, ‘Well, we might be interested in picking up where we left off, if you can undertake to change some contracting terms,” he said.
Barrett had a hand in drafting the energy bill (S 3143) the Senate plans to pass next Wednesday, legislation that would set a new target of at least 10 gigawatts of offshore wind power under contract by 2040. Among the other envisioned changes are giving the Department of Energy Resources, rather than utility companies or a collaboration, the sole contracting role in clean energy solicitations, and extensions of at least four years for state approvals in effect between Jan. 1, 2025 and Jan. 1, 2029 for “any offshore wind energy facility or portion thereof.”
Barrett said the offshore wind executives made “proposals for ways in which they would like to see state law structure the new negotiation.” Those were shared with the Healey administration, he said, and the Senate changed the industry’s specific wording before baking it into the bill “but we recognize that fundamentally they have a point.”
“So we have provided for increased flexibility in clean energy negotiations. We don’t dictate an outcome, but there are significant new capacities to adjust for extraordinary, unexpected events coming in on a deal from the outside. It could be the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it could be Donald Trump’s taking office,” he said. “At the same time, we’re also undertaking to extend the permits that already have undergone arduous environmental review and were granted by Massachusetts, only to see a process frozen in place by the truly extraordinary behavior of the Trump administration.”
The bill advancing in the Senate would allow DOER or the company awarded a bid “to request upward or downward price adjustments” after a bid is awarded but before commercial operation. Price adjustments would be allowed only for “substantial and unforeseeable” changes in law occurring after the bid submission or for cost changes “beyond the reasonable control of the requesting party,” with a requirement for documentation showing how the assumptions in a confidential bid changed.
It would also extend that flexibility to “any bid submitted … or any contract awarded” under the state’s 2023 request for proposals, covering the 2,678 MW of offshore wind power the state selected across three projects in September 2024. The contract completion milestone for those projects has been delayed at least five times, and during the delay one of the selected projects has removed itself from consideration and another raised the potential for a multi-year standstill. The most recent delay punted the deadline for contract execution to Tuesday, June 30.
“We want to signal, again, that we are in the clean energy business with a hiccup provided by the Trump people, but only with a hiccup. We want to procure 10 gigawatts of offshore wind and another 10 gigawatts of solar by 2040,” Barrett said. “Lots of lead time implied there, but the idea is that we’re in this for the long term.”
The Senate bill would also have Massachusetts do something new: put its own money into offshore wind projects before they are built. A provision that went unmentioned in the Senate’s fact sheet would create a “state-led offshore wind pre-development and project acceleration program,” authorizing the state to co-invest alongside developers in early-stage work such as permitting and site-assessment studies to speed up timelines and reduce project risk.
The state would be able to draw on a new procurement fund created in the bill, appropriations or federal money to co-invest in projects, and any deal would have to include a way for the state to recoup its investment once a project starts commercial operation.
While briefing reporters on the bill’s components related to offshore wind, Barrett said, “I’m confident that we’re going to surprise people by restarting offshore wind much more quickly.”
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