State lawmakers eye system to bring offshore wind energy into grid

BOSTON - As Massachusetts signals its intent to pursue enough additional renewable energy to double the amount of possible offshore wind power in Massachusetts, some lawmakers are hoping to begin a conversation about how that power generated at sea should be brought onto shore and into homes.

For the first 800 megawatts of offshore energy the state has secured and the next 800 megawatts it is currently soliciting, the project developer is expected to submit a bid that encompasses the power generation as well as its transmission to the onshore power grid. House Speaker Pro Tempore Patricia Haddad and Rep. Paul Brodeur on Thursday touted legislation to split the two and have one process to pick a developer to generate the power and a separate solicitation for an independent and shared transmission line system.

“The infrastructure is going to be as important as the windmills themselves and so we’re now looking for the right way to go with this infrastructure,” Haddad said. “At first it was that developers would take care of that, but now we realize that if we’re going to use the whole 10 gigawatts that people tell us are available out there, then we have to have other partners.”

Brodeur filed a bill (H 2814), which Haddad co-sponsored, that would direct the Department of Energy Resources to “competitively solicit proposals for expandable transmission that will deliver power produced by offshore wind energy generation” by the end of 2019.

Read more: https://www.telegram.com/news/20190620/state-lawmakers-eye-system-to-bring-offshore-wind-energy-into-grid
(Worcester Telegram & Gazette)