Earlier this month, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut announced a memorandum of understanding that creates a pathway for a potential coordinated selection of offshore wind as each state solicits offshore wind energy generation through their respective state procurement processes.
Through the MOU, which the group called the first of its kind in the United States, the three states said they would together seek multi-state offshore wind proposals that would “expand benefits for the region, capture cost reductions by developing projects at scale, and develop into viable projects.”
The three states are requesting that offshore wind developers submit multi-state offshore wind project proposals for consideration by the soliciting parties through their respective offshore wind procurements for selection in 2024.
Combined, the states’ solicitations are for up to 6,000 megawatts of offshore wind.
Actual project selections will depend on states’ individual assessments of proposals’ costs and benefits to ratepayers and other evaluation criteria specified in states’ requests for proposals.
Any two or three states may agree to select a multi-state proposal or proposals up to each states’ procurement authority and split the anticipated megawatts and renewable energy certificates from a single project.
The multi-state MOU is an agreement between the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection, and the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources and can be found at the Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts state energy office websites.
