Ørsted US Offshore Wind has received approval from Connecticut regulators of its 20-year power-purchase agreement for the Revolution Wind offshore wind farm.
Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has approved Ørsted’s long-term power-purchase agreement with Eversource and United Illuminating, two Connecticut utilities, for the 200 megawatts of clean energy that Revolution Wind will deliver to Connecticut. That’s enough renewable energy to power 100,000 Connecticut homes and to displace six million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
“Connecticut is now an important player in America’s offshore wind industry,” said Jeffrey Grybowski, Co-CEO of Ørsted US Offshore Wind. “We’re proud to be building the state’s first offshore wind farm. We’re ready to make major investments in our local workforce and in the Port of New London to ramp up this project.”
With the power contract now finalized, Ørsted will accelerate development work on Revolution Wind. Offshore installation work on Revolution Wind will begin in 2022, with the project in operations in 2023. Offshore oceanographic and geophysical survey work already began in 2018.
Deepwater Wind – now Ørsted US Offshore Wind – committed to investing at least $15 million in the Port of New London to allow substantial aspects of Revolution Wind to be constructed in New London. The company also plans to open a development office in New London and use a Connecticut-based boat builder to construct one for the project’s crew transfer vessels in Connecticut. The project is expected to create over 1,400 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection selected Ørsted US Offshore Wind (then Deepwater Wind)’s Revolution Wind in June in the state’s first procurement for offshore wind energy.
Revolution Wind, located in federal waters roughly halfway between Montauk, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., is designed to serve as regional energy center. Rhode Island separately selected 400MW from Revolution Wind to power that state.
Ørsted acquired Deepwater Wind in October. The new combined organization—Ørsted US Offshore Wind—will be able to deliver clean energy to every coastal state in the densely-populated east coast corridor between Massachusetts and Virginia. Seven states in that region have already committed to build more than 10GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
The new company launches as the clear leader in the US market, with the most comprehensive geographic coverage and the largest pipeline of development capacity, totaling over 8GW.
Ørsted US Offshore Wind is joint headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island.
