Massachusetts has ‘secret sauce’ to keep offshore wind on track

Addressing a meeting of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, she said the combination of organized labour and the clean energy industry gives Massachusetts ‘a special sauce’ that will enable it to continue with its plans for offshore wind. Doing so is a key plank of the state’s plans for decarbonization. “Mark my words, we will show them,” she said in widely reported remarks at the meeting. “Because we’re moving ahead. We’ll show them,” Healey said. “We will get this done, and people will be behind it.”

She cited the growth of climate jobs in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island as a new report, ‘Winds of Prosperity: A Climate and Jobs Strategy for Offshore Wind in Southern New England,’ highlighted opportunities to leverage incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). She suggested that far from retrenching, the states should increase their offshore wind targets and develop an offshore wind development plan that will help reduce costs.

The report by Climate Jobs Rhode Island, Climate Jobs Massachusetts, the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs and Climate Jobs National Resource Center described offshore wind as an ‘opportunity to reshore American manufacturing and transform this growing global industry through Yankee ingenuity.’ The report said Southern New England’s states have an opportunity to leverage IRA incentives and apply the lessons learned from their first offshore wind contracts. 

“They are positioned to raise their offshore wind capacity goals and embark on a coordinated, large-scale offshore wind development plan that will lower average costs per MW of new capacity,” said the report, noting that larger scale development is needed to meet the region’s rising demand for electricity whilst protecting the public from unnecessary rate increases. 

“Using the IRA’s incentives, Southern New England can build out its regional offshore wind industry to achieve economies of scale that will drive down project costs for developers while reducing costs for consumers,” said the authors of the report, noting that the US Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Laboratory believe that prices will halve within a decade.

The states’ vision for offshore wind development is based on what the report described as a ‘climate and jobs strategy’ built around new investment, active government facilitation of industry growth and reliance on a skilled union workforce. Under a climate and jobs strategy, state governments aim to develop an industry, not just individual projects, enabling Southern New England to become a national leader in offshore wind, exporting offshore wind energy, technologies and industry standards.

Over the next decade, said the report, Southern New England can set a goal of at least 30 GW by 2040 to build an industry that meets 100% of the region’s retail electricity demand. In doing so, the region ensures a 9 GW by 2030 goal is met on time, while also building the foundation for its 2040 goals.

Between 2035 and 2040, the authors of the report said, as the region closes in on its 2040 goals, Southern New England will strengthen their position as exporters of energy from offshore wind, supplying offshore wind components to developers across the country. 

“Southern New England can set a new goal of 60 GW by 2050, so that the region not only matches its own electricity demand with offshore wind energy, but also trade clean energy with its neighbours,” the report concluded.