New Bedford Guide Your Guide to New Bedford and South Coast, MA
Colin A. Young
State House News Service
It’s official: the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal will be the primary staging and deployment base for the construction of both offshore wind developments that are expected to someday generate renewable power for Massachusetts.
The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs announced last week that Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind have each signed an agreement to use the New Bedford port as their primary land bases. The agreements, EEA said, “commit the facility to full-time offshore wind work from 2023 into 2027 and are worth more than $32.5 million.”
The 29-acre New Bedford facility was built by (and is operated by) the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to support the construction, assembly and installation of offshore wind turbines, and to handle cargo shipments. EEA said it is “the first port in North America specifically purpose-built to support the staging and installation of offshore wind components.”
“The Baker-Polito Administration has committed Massachusetts to an ambitious net zero emissions target to combat climate change, and offshore wind will be an essential part of meeting that goal,” Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides said. “The New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal will help Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind bring more than 1,600 [megawatts] of clean, renewable energy to power our homes and businesses and will engage Massachusetts workers and companies to pioneer this industry in the United States.”
Together, Vineyard Wind I and Mayflower Wind are expected to generate 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind energy, which a MassCEC-commissioned assessment determined would generate between $1.4 billion to $2.1 billion in total economic impact for Massachusetts and could support between 2,000 and 3,000 “direct job years” over the next decade. Vineyard Wind, which is poised to be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the country, is expecting to learn by the end of the year whether the federal government will allow it to proceed and could be operational in 2023. Mayflower Wind is expected to be operational by December 2025.
