Mayflower Wind hopes to eventually generate 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind power on its leased patch of the Atlantic Ocean and, through a new agreement with a Wakefield-based offshore transmission company, much of that power could come onshore at the site of a former coal plant in Somerset.
The Shell and Ocean Winds North America joint venture and Anbaric Development Partners announced Thursday that they had entered into an agreement for Mayflower to use Anbaric-developed transmission assets to connect the wind-generated electricity to the regional grid at Brayton Point, where the largest coal-fired power plant in New England and the last in Massachusetts closed in 2017.
Mayflower Wind was selected unanimously by Massachusetts utility executives in 2019 to build and operate an 804 MW wind farm about 20 nautical miles south of the western end of Nantucket. The power from that project is expected to be brought onshore in Falmouth and Mayflower officials said the connection at Brayton Point will supplement the Cape Cod landing.
“Massachusetts just issued its third solicitation to bring up to another 1,600 MW of offshore wind online. Mayflower Wind looks forward to delivering on the Commonwealth’s commitments to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Our position at Brayton Point only strengthens our efforts to provide additional clean offshore wind energy to New England,” Mayflower Wind CEO Michael Brown said.
In 2019, Anbaric announced a $650 million investment to launch the Anbaric Renewable Energy Center at the Brayton Point Commerce Center in Somerset, featuring 400 megawatts of on-site battery storage and a 1,200 megawatt high-voltage direct current converter to serve the offshore wind industry as part of the company’s vision for its Massachusetts OceanGrid project, a shared interconnection point for the multiple companies competing to build wind turbine installations off the Massachusetts coastline.
Mayflower officials said the partnership “will help set in motion the development of supporting infrastructure at Brayton Point needed to revitalize the former coal plant site and enable Somerset and the South Coast to benefit from the rapidly expanding offshore wind industry.”
“This marks the beginning of positive change for Brayton Point, and puts this piece of land on a path toward becoming a thriving hub for offshore wind,” Rep. Patricia Haddad of Somerset said. “Anbaric had the early vision to bring offshore wind to Brayton Point. Repurposing this valuable grid infrastructure for offshore wind is the first step to growing the industry right here in Somerset and realizing a vision that has been years in the making.”
