The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has released a request for proposals (RFP) for up to 2000MW of offshore wind, off the state’s coast.
Developers have until midday 30 September to submit bids.
The department will hold a bidders’ conference on 29 August to allow bidders the opportunity to ask questions about the RFP.
DEEP launched the solicitation within days of enacting legislation, An Act Concerning the Procurement of Energy Derived from Offshore Wind.
Ahead of passing the Public Act 19-71, the department sought comments from stakeholders on a draft of the RFP in July.
As part of the RFP process, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes convened a Commission on Environmental Standards to provide input on best practices for avoiding, minimising, 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 7 August that provided recommendations to DEEP.
In their submissions developers must provide an Environmental and Fisheries Mitigation Plan for the construction and operation of offshore wind farms.
The plan must include clearly identified stakeholders, a stakeholder engagement process, a plan for pre-construction and risk assessment, a process to avoid, minimise, and mitigate risks to stakeholders throughout the project phases, and a reporting schedule on the plan.
The mitigation plan must also show how submitted projects will avoid, minimise, and mitigate the risk to commercial fisheries, risk to marine wildlife including whales, sea turtles, birds and bats, provide a data reference and sharing plan that addresses coordination with relevant regional working groups, showing how developers intend to store and share inventory and monitoring data.
The mitigation plan also requires information on a decommission plan that includes a commitment to the process outlined by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for federal waters, and addresses decommissioning, including funding, for project areas outside of federal waters.
Commissioner Dykes said: “I am grateful to the Commission on Environmental Standards for working quickly to inform DEEP about opportunities to pursue offshore wind development in a manner that minimises environmental and fisheries impacts, both in this RFP process and in any steps that follow the selection of a project in this RFP.
“Through this competitive process, we look forward to seeing this emerging industry bring forward its best projects to grow our green economy and provide a cleaner source of generation for Connecticut.”
The RFP represents the state’s first solicitation dedicated specifically to offshore wind development, following on from multi-resource solicitations in 2018, in which Connecticut bought 304MW of offshore wind from the Revolution Wind project, owned by Orsted.