Bay State Wind Submits Bid to Build Offshore Wind Farm in Massachusetts

Bay State Wind, a 50/50 joint venture between Ørsted and Eversource, today submitted its proposal in response to the commonwealth’s second Request for Proposals (RFP) for offshore wind energy generation. Bay State Wind included proposals for a 400MW and 800MW project. Bay State Wind’s bid delivers unmatched project maturity, community investments, stakeholder collaboration and an achievable timeline for project development.

“Since day one our team has been focused on delivering cost-effective, renewable offshore wind energy to the Bay State,” said President of Ørsted North America and CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind Thomas Brostrøm. “Our project will not only create jobs and provide local investment, it will be delivered by the offshore wind’s leading experts to ensure the project is achievable, sustainable and successful for the commonwealth.”

With several major power plants set to go offline over the next decade, Bay State Wind will help replace lost capacity and diversify the state’s power sources with clean, reliable energy. The 800MW project could generate enough clean, renewable energy to provide power up to 500,000 Massachusetts homes and is expected to deliver greenhouse gas reductions equivalent to taking up to 350,000 cars off the road.

“We are thrilled to once again help Massachusetts take the next step to grow its clean energy economy” said Eversource Executive Vice President for Enterprise Energy Strategy and Business Development Lee Olivier. “Our team has been in the local communities, meeting with residents and stakeholders, to ensure their feedback is built into Bay State Wind’s proposal, which is the most mature, comprehensive and thorough offshore wind project available.”

Drawing from Ørsted’s unmatched record of developing 25 offshore wind farms around the globe on time and on budget, and Eversource’s more than 100 year presence in the Northeast, industry-leading financial strength, and regional transmission development expertise, Bay State Wind brings unparalleled differentiators to its bid in several key areas:

Four-year Maturity of the Bay State Wind Project

Bay State Wind has been in development since 2015, with currently over 50 local full-time employees supporting project development in Massachusetts. We understand the comprehensive and parallel efforts required to develop and construct a wind farm in the waters off New England, and our team has developed metrics, including integrated scheduling techniques, to measure progress and proactively anticipate all steps in the process.

In an effort to gather as much information and research about the project footprint and its surrounding environment, the team has gathered 2 years of advanced FLiDAR wind speed data specific to our lease area and conducted over 12,000 miles of geotechnical surveys in the lease area and along the export cable route.

Long-term Engagement with Marine Life and Fisheries

Sharing use of marine resources is critical not only to the success of offshore wind, but for our larger efforts to create more renewable energy for a better, sustainable world. Bay State Wind understands the challenges that can come with co-existence in the ocean, which pertains to marine, mammal and animal life, as well as Massachusetts’ deeply-rooted fishing industry. Bay State Wind has demonstrated a significant willingness to work directly with the fishing industry and other ocean users. For example:

• In response to feedback from fishermen and community members, Bay State Wind was the first developer to proactively revise its turbine layout pattern to accommodate historical fishing patterns and help to provide greater ease of fishing within, and transiting through, the wind farm.
• Bay State Wind developers were the first in the industry to partner with the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA), the only national commercial fishing organization that is purpose-built for interacting with the offshore wind industry to maintain sustainable fisheries.
• Bay State Wind’s Engineering and Layouts team has incorporated, and continues to incorporate, many suggestions from fishermen and local stakeholders in order to balance the need for safe navigation, fishing concerns and clean energy production.
• Bay State Wind has the most resources dedicated to, and experience with, the fishing community of any developer in America.

Investment in Massachusetts

Bay State Wind in committed to meaningful, local investment to ensure the Massachusetts community as a whole – not just some – benefits from offshore wind development. In addition to providing hundreds of jobs during construction, the project is committing hundreds of millions to direct community investments.

The Bay State Wind proposal is based on a rigorous evaluation of the work being led by Ørsted and Eversource’s team of industry-leading experts with unmatched experience. The project will be located 25 miles off the Massachusetts South Coast and 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. The wind farm is not visible over the horizon from mainland Massachusetts and on the clearest of days only marginally visible from the shores of Martha's Vineyard.

For more details about the Bay State Wind project, please reference the fact sheet.