The combined Connecticut-Massachusetts-Rhode Island offshore wind solicitation has attracted bids from Avangrid, Ørsted, Vineyard Offshore and SouthCoast Wind Energy.
Avangrid (the US affiliate of Iberdrola) has submitted multiple proposals, including the 791 MW New England Wind 1 and the 1,080 MW New England Wind 2. If combined, the two projects could generate enough power to supply nearly 1 million homes. The Danish Ørsted, has proposed the 1,184 MW Starboard Wind project, which could supply power to Connecticut and/or Rhode Island. Vineyard Offshore (owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners) has proposed the 1,200 MW Vineyard Wind 2, which would sit 47 km south of Nantucket in Massachusetts. SouthCoast Wind Energy (a subsidiary of the renewable energy developer Ocean Winds) confirmed its bid with no details about its proposed offshore wind project.
In October 2023, the US states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island agreed to collaborate on offshore wind procurement. Although each state held its own tender, the combined capacity of the tenders totalled 6.8 GW (Connecticut with 2 GW, Massachusetts with 3.6 GW and Rhode Island with 1.2 GW).
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 of offshore wind were operational at the end of 2022).
Do you want to become an expert on renewable energies auctions?
Discover our very detailed and regularly updated RES auctions database with worldwide coverage and a technical focus backed by academic research.
With our renewable energies auctions service you will be able to monitor auctions at a global level. Its (expanding) scope notably includes all major G20 countries and offers an especially fine tracking on Europe and South America.