Wind

US raises sails on next wave of floating wind in bid for gigascale proposals for Gulf of Maine

Big-hitters Avangrid, Mainstream, TotalEnergies in the frame for 80GW play but offshore 'backbone' grid necessary to bring the power to market lacks federal incentives

Gulf of Maine. Portland Head Light, Maine.
Gulf of Maine. Portland Head Light, Maine.Foto: Ken Lund/Flickr
  • Tim Ferry

Floating wind development in the windswept reaches of the Gulf of Maine made headway this month with five developers submitting project proposals, including US-market big-hitters Avangrid, Mainstream and TotalEnergies.

The proposals were in response to a request for interest (RfI) by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the regulator of energy development in federal waters, to assess commercial interest in the Gulf of Maine offshore wind planning area.

The five developers included Mainstream Renewable Power, Avangrid, TotalEnergies, Hexicon, and Pine Tree Wind, a consortium of the state of Maine and Aqua Ventus, a joint venture of Diamond – owned by Mitsubishi – and RWE.

“We expect the Gulf of Maine to be an area of significant offshore wind development,” said Theodore Paradise, chief policy and legal officer for Swedish floating wind developer Hexicon.

Encompassing 13.7 million acres (5.5 million hectares) of federal waters off the Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire coasts, the region could hold 82GW of offshore wind energy, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Most of it is in water as deep as 700 metres, requiring floating platforms.

Demand in southern New England will drive the market, with Connecticut alone needing 11GW to meet its clean energy goals, while Massachusetts’ long-term plans call for 15GW, nearly three times the current mandate of 5.6GW. The region is eyeing 40GW of capacity by 2050.

The state of Maine sees the industry as a source of economic growth, with the University of Maine’s VolturnUS concrete floating foundation marking a key step forward in the technology’s commercialisation.
Gulf of Maine project nominationsFoto: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

The Gulf of Maine will be “the next wave of offshore wind development post-2030,” said Paula Major, vice president of offshore wind in the US for Mainstream Renewable Power.

Offshore transmission "backbone"

Getting the power to market will be a major challenge, however, with a study by New England’s independent systems operator (ISO-NE) indicating that the grid can handle only 5.8GW of the coming tens of gigawatts.

“Grid development will be essential to unlock the resource [in the Guf of Maine],” said Hexicon’s Paradise.

The region has a pipeline of 6GW in the final stages of permitting that “are expected to use up all of the existing, available transmission capacity at the most convenient (and cost-effective) points of interconnection along Cape Cod and Rhode Island,” a consortium of New England states said in a request for interest (RFI) issued in June.

The RfI seeks comment on upgrades to the regional grid needed to integrate offshore wind into the New England bulk electric system and is active until the end of December.

“ISO-NE studies show that the next tranche of OSW projects would trigger significant transmission upgrades across New England,” the RfI noted.

These upgrades could involve building out a so-far elusive “backbone” or “exoskeleton” offshore transmission grid to more efficiently and cost-effectively move wind power from its source in remote Gulf of Maine waters to load centres in southern New England.
“Offshore transmission is going to be a key element to integrating offshore wind resources in Gulf of Maine and around the rest of the region,” said Paradise.

“It can result in far fewer cables with significantly more capability and cost savings for customers [and] establishes the sort of grid needed to develop significant wind resources in the Gulf of Maine.”

Maryland is likewise proposing an offshore grid to handle transmission for Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) region, which has over 4GW already under contract, with many more expected.
New Jersey’s pioneering efforts for planned offshore wind transmission failed to deliver an offshore backbone grid, however.

Generous investment tax credits in recent US climate legislation made it more cost effective to bring radial lines together at a single point of interconnection onshore.

“If offshore wind generators construct the transmission necessary to bring their respective projects onshore, [they] are eligible for the 30% ITC,” generating savings of up to $2.2bn, said Andrea Hart, senior program manager for offshore wind at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

The landmark Inflation Reduction Act passed last summer will likely spur billions in investment in renewable energy but has been criticised for not incentivising transmission investment.
Transmission infrastructure and permitting reform are two are two of the industry's highest priorities.
Long distance, multi-state transmission approvals can take as long as the projects themselves – eight to 10 years. Such lengthy time frames not only delay carbon reduction efforts but can lead to dramatic changes project economics, as seen in the recent attempt by Avangrid to cancel its 1.2GW Commonwealth Wind, a key project for Massachusetts to meet its mandate.

The project was bid in 2021, before the sudden surge in inflation and interest rates made its record-low offtake contracts suddenly uneconomical.

“Limited electric transmission capacity is the biggest barrier to clean energy growth and US emission reductions,” said Rob Gramlich, president of renewable energy consulting firm Grid Strategies.

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Published 23 December 2022, 22:36Updated 18 January 2023, 16:55
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