Bruce Beaubouef, Managing Editor
Vineyard Offshore has confirmed that it has shelved the proposed Vineyard Wind 2 project, according to multiple online reports.
The decision comes in the wake of Connecticut state officials’ decision to withdraw their planned offtake purchase of 400 megawatts from Vineyard Wind 2. As planned, the project would have provided 1,200 MW of installed base for the New England region.
In a brief statement, Vineyard Offshore officials confirmed that they were pulling the 800 megawatts that Massachusetts had selected from Vineyard Wind 2. The project had been in a later stage of permitting at the federal level.
“With Connecticut’s decision today (December 20) not to purchase the remaining 400 MW, we are unable to contract the project’s full 1200 MW at this time,” Vineyard Offshore said in the statement.
Connecticut along with Massachusetts and Rhode Island launched the first multi-state coordinated solicitation earlier this year saying it was in response to the changing market conditions and challenges faced by offshore developers. They provided the opportunity for projects to bid either multi-state or individually.
Connecticut had been expected to participate in a tri-state wind procurement along with Massachusetts and Rhode Island, but did not buy into any projects when bids were announced earlier this year.
Officials in Connecticut announced last week that their state had selected new solar and electric storage projects, but not any new offshore wind projects, in its latest procurement round.
Last September, Massachusetts had selected up to 800 MW of the 1,200 MW Vineyard Wind 2 project. But since then, the permitting and developing process for Vineyard Wind 2 has been delayed repeatedly.
State officials have relied upon the development of a robust offshore wind industry as a primary strategy for meeting Massachusetts’ decarbonization commitments, but projects have repeatedly been delayed, and costs have significantly increased in the meantime.
To date, Vineyard Wind 1 is the only project Massachusetts has in its offshore wind pipeline.
If the other two contracts under negotiation are finalized, Massachusetts will have 2,678 MW in its pipeline, less than half of the way toward the statutory target to procure 5,600 MW of offshore wind by 2027.
