The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has approved the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for the 1.2 GW Commonwealth Wind and the 480 MW Mayflower offshore wind projects, located south of the island of Martha’s Vinyard, in the US state of Massachusetts. The DPU approved the PPAs for 405 MW out of the planned 480 MW of the Mayflower project (a first PPA for an initial 804 MW phase of the Mayflower project was approved in 2020).
The 20-year PPAs were approved despite concerns raised by both project developers over the financial viability of the sites under the current terms. Avangrid, a subsidiary of Spain’s Iberdrola and the developer of the Commonwealth project, wanted its contract dismissed so that it could re-bid the project in Massachusetts’ fourth solicitation, due to take place in April 2023. Mayflower Wind, a joint venture between Shell Renewables and Ocean Winds, also filed a request with the DPU for more time to negotiate with their project PPAs but did not make a motion to dismiss the proceedings.
In March 2022, the House of Representatives of Massachusetts passed a bill setting an offshore wind capacity target of 5.6 GW by 2027 (up from a proposed 4 GW target). At the federal level, the United States targets 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 15 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035 (only 42 MW were operational at the end of 2021).
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.