Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners will produce electricity at the 800MW Vineyard project off Massachusetts at a levelised price of 6.5¢ per kilowatt-hour.
Utility companies Unitil, National Grid and Eversource filed long-term contracts for the project with state officials following “a year’s worth of collaboration and consultation”.
“The Vineyard Wind offshore wind generation long-term contracts provide a highly cost-effective source of clean energy generation for Massachusetts customers,” said state officials.
Contracts are expected to reduce customer bills “all else being equal” by up to 1.5%.
The total direct and indirect benefits to Massachusetts ratepayers from the long-term contracts with Vineyard are expected to be 3.5 cents/kWh on average over the term of the contract with total net lifetime benefits of approximately $1.4bn.
Vineyard also includes a $15m initiative for acceleration of offshore wind, workforce development and protection of marine mammals.
The wind farm is due online in two phases of 400MW in 2022 and 2023 and was described as contributing to “an affordable energy future”.
Image: Ibrerdrola unit Avangrid is spreading the offshore message in the US (Iberdrola)
Vineyard offers cut-price power
By EBS