October 31, 2019 — The Baker Administration announced Mayflower Wind as the winner of the state’s second offshore wind farm procurement, praising a proposal that the company said offered the lowest price and the least onshore investment of its three major offerings.
Few details about the price or the onshore investment were revealed, but Mayflower said in its original bid that the price would be “the lowest cost offshore wind energy ever in the US.” Mayflower is a joint venture of Shell New Energies and EDP Renewables.
The choice of the lowest-cost option is controversial because it touches on a sensitive policy issue. Officials on the South Coast have been pressing the Baker administration to focus more on onshore investment so that the state could begin to supply more and more of the supply chain for wind farms springing up along the coast. Gov. Charlie Baker is eager to see onshore industry develop, but he is wary of doing so at the cost of higher prices for power, which negatively affects customers and businesses across the state.
Mayflower laid out three options for a wind farm with a capacity of 804 megawatts. The first proposal, called “low cost energy,” offered the lowest price and some onshore investment. The second proposal, called “infrastructure and innovation,” offered a slightly higher price but promised more investment onshore. The third option, called “Massachusetts manufacturing,” offered the highest price but more onshore investment.