March 23, 2024 — The realignment in the offshore wind sector continues with Shell reporting that it is honing its portfolio. In the latest move, Shell New Energies exited its 50 percent stake in SouthCoast Wind Energy which is in the permitting process for a 2.4 GW wind farm to be located off the coast of Massachusetts. It is the latest step seeing the energy giant reduce its participation in wind energy.
SouthCoast Wind was formed as a 50-50 joint venture in 2018 to develop offshore wind projects with its first lease for a site 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 23 miles south of Nantucket. The company is a partnership with Ocean Winds North America, which in turn is a partnership between EDP Renewables and ENGIE. When EDPR and ENGIE combined their offshore wind assets and project pipeline to create Ocean Winds in 2019, the company had a total of 1.5 GW under construction and 4.0 GW under development. In addition to SouthCoast Wind, Ocean Winds has Bluepoint Wind in the New York Bight and recently won the lease for Golden State Wind in the first auction for sites offshore from California.
The SouthCoast Wind project is still in the permitting stage with Rhode Island conducting hearings last month. The first phase of the project which would deliver approximately 1.2 GW via an electric grid connection in Massachusetts is targeted for the late 2020s. SouthCoast Wind still developing plans for the second phase of the project.