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New England states are moving forward with three massive offshore wind farms

Government officials in Massachusetts and Rhode Island announced Friday that they are moving forward with three offshore wind power projects, totaling 2.9 gigawatts. This is enough electricity to run about 1.6 millions homes.

Following a joint invitation in March to build wind farms off the coasts of New England, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have selected projects that will help them achieve their renewable energy goals to combat climate change.

In a press release, Governor Maura healey stated that "we are taking an important first step towards energy independence and cleaner air as well as transforming our economic."

After a disastrous year in which developers cancelled multiple contracts for projects and took $9.1 billion of write-offs or impairments, the U.S. offshore industry is stabilizing in the second half 2024.

New England has selected SouthCoast Wind as well as New England Wind 1 & Vineyard Wind 2 for its new offshore projects. New England Wind 1 is backed Avangrid, Southcoast by a joint-venture between EDP Energias de Portugal & Engie, and Vineyard Wind 2 by Vineyard Offshore. Vineyard Offshore is managed by funds managed Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Around the end of this decade, the projects should begin to deliver power.

The federal and state climate pledges are primarily focused on decarbonizing the electrical grids through replacing fossil-fired energy with renewable wind and sun power. Massachusetts wants to reduce its carbon emissions from the power sector by 50% by 2030, and by 100% by 2050. Rhode Island, a much smaller state, has set the goal of using all renewables before 2033. (Reporting and editing by Jonathan Oatis, David Gregorio, and Laila Kearney)

(source: Reuters)