US developer Avangrid does not expect to start work on the 1.5GW Kitty Hawk offshore wind zone until “well beyond 2020”.
“Projects like this take eight, 10, 12 years to come to fruition, so this is a long-term view for us,” Avangrid CEO Jim Torgerson said during an earnings call with analysts.
Avangrid’s $9.1m bid won the 49,000-hectare site off North Carolina at an auction in March.
Federal regulators expect to execute the lease this spring and then the developer will have a year to submit a site assessment plan.
Avangrid has also set its sights on the Massachusetts offshore wind market, said Torgerson.
The New England state plans to solicit 1.6GW by 2027 and Avangrid is “looking at participating”.
“With our majority shareholder Iberdrola, who has currently about 1.3GW of offshore wind in in construction and operation, we have the ability to leverage that experience for our own entity,” said Torgerson.
Three developers, Deepwater Wind, Dong and Copenhagen Offshore Partners, now hold leases in federal waters offshore the state.
Regulators expect to hold an auction for another site off Massachusetts in early 2018.
Avangrid, meanwhile, also intends to bid a couple of different onshore projects into Massachusetts’ upcoming call for clean energy.
In corporate news, the company has named Laura Beane as the incoming CEO for Avangrid Renewables following the resignation of Frank Burkhartsmeyer, who is taking a position with Oregon-based utility Northwest Natural Gas.
Image: reNEWS
Kitty Hawk flies ‘beyond 2020’
Avangrid says 1.5GW project could take up to 12 years to come to fruition
By EBS