Vineyard Wind Wins Connecticut Offshore Tender With 804 MW Bid

Vineyard Wind has announced that its 804 MW offshore wind proposal for the Park City Project has been selected by the Connecticut DEEP

Vineyard Wind has announced that its 804 MW offshore wind proposal for the Park City Project has been selected by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) for its 2019 solicitation for offshore wind facilities.

Lars Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind said that the firm is proud that its Park City Wind proposal was selected in this competitive process and that they are excited to work with Governor Lamont and DEEP to deliver jobs and economic development opportunities to the Bridgeport region and bring meaningful reductions in harmful carbon emissions. 

“Today’s announcement takes Connecticut one step closer to being the epicenter of the new offshore wind industry, with thriving ports in both Bridgeport and New London. We look forward to building on the work already underway with a network of project partners, local officials, the maritime community, other developers, and all stakeholders involved to make Connecticut a hub for the offshore wind industry in the United States for decades to come,” he said.

Vineyard Wind is a joint venture of Avangrid Renewables, a subsidiary of AVANGRID which is majority-owned by Iberdrola, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) each of which owns 50 percent of Vineyard Wind.

In August, Connecticut DEEP had released a request for proposals (RfP) for offshore wind power for the procurement of energy derived from offshore wind projects. The RfP was seeking up to 2 GW of offshore wind.

The RfP represents the state’s first solicitation dedicated specifically to offshore wind development. It builds off of multi-resource solicitations in 2018 in which Connecticut bought 304 MW of offshore wind from the Revolution Wind project (now owned by Ørsted and Eversource).

DEEP launched this historic RfP process within days of enactment of Public Act 19-71 in July, when it sought comments from stakeholders on a draft of the RfP. As part of the RfP process, Commissioner Katie Dykes had convened a Commission on Environmental Standards to provide input on best practices for avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating any impacts to wildlife, natural resources, ecosystems, and traditional or existing water-dependent uses like commercial fishing. The Commission held a series of meetings over the course of two months and released a report on August 7, 2019, that provided recommendations to DEEP.