Massachusetts Announces Agreements With Offshore Wind Firms for New Bedford Marine Terminal

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs on Aug. 20 announced lease agreements with Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind to use the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal as the main staging and deployment facility for their offshore wind projects.

The agreements worth over $32.5 million commit the terminal for full-time use from 2023-2027. The terminal represents the first port in North America constructed for the sole purpose of supporting the offshore wind industry. The 29-acre heavy-lift facility has the capability to “sustain mobile crane and storage loads that rival the highest capacity ports,” according to the agency.

Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind were selected in 2018 and 2019, respectively, to provide a total of 1.6 gigawatts of offshore wind power. Vineyard Wind LLC’s 800-megawatt project, jointly owned by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, would be the first large-scale offshore wind development in the U.S. Mayflower Wind Energy LLC’s 804-megawatt project, a joint venture of Shell New Energies US LLC and EDPR Offshore North America LLC, was selected in Massachusetts’ second round of offshore wind solicitation last November.