Mayflower Wind will stage in New Bedford: 2nd wind turbine company looking for lease agreement for South Terminal

Mayflower Wind will stage in New Bedford: 2nd wind turbine company looking for lease agreement for South Terminal



By Kiernan Dunlop

NEW BEDFORD — The city’s efforts to become the hub of the offshore wind industry on the East Coast seem to be paying off.

On Friday, the president of Mayflower Wind, John Hartnett, told The Standard-Times that he anticipates the New Bedford Marine Terminal will be a “primary site for us for our construction.”

Mayflower Wind won a bidding war for Massachusetts’ second offshore wind contract in October.

The company, which is a joint venture of Shell oil company and EDP Renewables, is now working on getting the necessary contracts and permitting to create an 804 megawatt wind farm 20 miles off the coast of Nantucket.

“We entered into a lease option agreement with MassCEC (Massachusetts Clean Energy Center) who oversees the terminal and we are negotiating a lease agreement,” Hartnett said.

In addition, the company is looking at potential sites for long term operations in the New Bedford area, according to Hartnett, though they haven’t made any decisions on that at this time.

Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, said in a statement, “The New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal represents a significant asset that will be critical as Massachusetts workers build these massive infrastructure projects, and we are pleased Mayflower Wind has entered into a lease option agreement for use of the terminal, marking another milestone in the offshore wind industry’s development in the Commonwealth.”

Vineyard Wind, the first company to be granted an offshore wind contract in Massachusetts, has already made their own commitments to New Bedford.

The company signed an 18 month-lease to exclusively use the terminal starting in December 2020 at a cost of $9 million.

Mayflower Wind is looking to begin construction on their project in 2024 and 2025, Hartnett said, which is after Vineyard Wind’s lease for the terminal is completed.

Vineyard Wind also gave the Port of New Bedford $50,000 in November of last year to help ready the port for the offshore wind industry, and along with MassCEC announced $700,000 in workforce training grants in May, $200,000 of which went to Bristol Community College.

On Friday Hartnett discussed the impact both Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind would have on the Southcoast.

“Our project is going to billions of dollars, Vineyard’s project is billions of dollars we will over the next decade/ two decades... have tens of billions of dollars of construction projects in the area which will generate... significant economic development opportunities for the region,” Hartnett said, “Which is a secondary benefit of these projects and I think as we embrace the projects going forward the supply chain will embrace the area.”

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell also said he sees the economic opportunities the companies will bring to the city.

“Mayflower’s agreement to utilize the Marine Commerce Terminal, combined with Vineyard Wind’s similar agreement, ensures that once the buildout of the offshore wind industry begins, the terminal will be the center of considerable economic activity for several years,” Mitchell said in a written statement, “We will build on these developments by continuing to market the port aggressively, making sound investments in infrastructure, advocating for state policies that encourage local investment, and helping the offshore wind and fishing industries coexist successfully.”

There have been some setbacks in the offshore wind industry, environmental reviews by the federal government have delayed Vineyard Wind’s plans and pushed back their original timeline.

When asked if he was concerned that Mayflower Wind would faces similar obstacles, Hartnett said, “I’m concerned that the regulatory process is holding up the projects that are ahead of me, Vineyard specifically, I think regulatory uncertainty adds risks which adds costs to projects and I think that’s not been a real positive for Vineyard.”

However, because they are the second project in Massachusetts, Hartnett said a lot of “the first mover” issues are being addressed with Vineyard Wind’s project, so he doesn’t anticipate having the same slow down to their project that Vineyard Wind’s faced.

Since they were awarded the federal contract in October, Hartnett said they have been negotiating contracts with the states three electricity distribution companies, Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil.

According to Hartnett, they executed the contracts in early January and this week the companies and the Department of Environmental Resources will submit the contracts to the Department of Public Utilities for consideration and approval.

When Vineyard Wind went through the process it took six months, Hartnett said, and they are hoping for a quicker process this time.