MassCEC accelerates the responsible development of offshore wind projects while increasing the role of Massachusetts companies, institutions, and workers in the offshore wind industry
Offshore wind will become the largest source of clean energy for Massachusetts, making more electricity available with lower emissions. We've set an ambitious agenda to become the national hub for the emerging offshore wind industry on the East Coast:
- Help the Commonwealth meet its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction mandate
- Address the retirement of aging power plants
- Provide economic development opportunities for Massachusetts businesses
- Create thousands of jobs for Massachusetts residents
Decarbonization of the buildings and transportation sectors will increase demand for zero-carbon electricity sources such as offshore wind
Technology, Supply Chain, and Jobs
MassCEC is leading the Commonwealth’s coordinated strategy to realize all the benefits of offshore wind: meeting our climate goals, advancing technology and infrastructure, providing business and job opportunities, and training a workforce to meet the industry’s needs. Our Wind Technology Testing Center, the only facility of its kind in the United States, is a key asset in this undertaking.
Offshore WInd Initiatives
MassCEC is leading an array of initiatives and technical analyses in close collaboration with policy makers, regulators, developers, industry and stakeholders. These initiatives are designed to establish baseline environmental data to support the permitting process, reduce development and deployment risks, advance innovation, and increase jobs and economic activity in the offshore wind sector.
- Workforce Training and Development
- Supply Chain Directory
- Ports and Infrastructure
- Advancing Offshore Wind Responsibly
- Wildlife Research and Monitoring
- Commercial Fishing
- Wind and Ocean Resource Data
- Transmission
- National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC)
- MassCEC Funding
- Power-US MA
- Windstar
HISTORY
Since 2009, Massachusetts has been leading an intensive effort with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to advance offshore wind in leasing areas 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. This effort has involved extensive collaboration with a broad range stakeholders and resulted in accommodations to avoid important marine habitat, fishing grounds, and marine commerce routes, and most notably the reduction of the original offshore wind energy area by 60%. Multiple offshore wind developers have lease agreements to build projects in the federal waters south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts.
POLICY FRAMEWORK
On August 8, 2016, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed into law a major energy bill that is the largest commitment of any state in the nation to offshore wind. An Act Relative to Energy Diversity (H. 4568), requires Massachusetts electricity distribution companies to procure 1,600 megawatts (MW) of cost-effective offshore wind energy by June 2027. The first competitive solicitation took place in June 2017.
MassCEC-Owned Infrastructure
MassCEC’s Wind Technology Testing Center (WTTC) offers a full suite of certification tests for turbine blades up to 90 meters in length. WTTC also offers the latest wind turbine blade testing and prototype development methodologies to help the wind industry deploy the next generation of land-based and offshore wind turbine technologies
The New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal (NBMCT) is a multi-purpose facility designed to support the construction, assembly, and deployment of offshore wind projects, as well as handle bulk, break-bulk, container shipping and large specialty marine cargo. The first of its kind in North America, the terminal has been engineered to sustain mobile crane and storage loads that rival the highest load-bearing ports in the nation
Southern New England Lease Areas
MassCEC curates a list of companies and organizations with skills and services applicable to the offshore wind industry