The US state of Massachusetts has again postponed the finalisation of offtake contracts for two offshore wind projects selected in a competitive auction in September 2024. The projects are Ocean Winds’ 1,287 MW SouthCoast Wind and Iberdrola’s 791 MW New England Wind 1, both awarded under a dual-state solicitation with Rhode Island.
Lawyers representing the evaluation team negotiating the contracts informed the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on 30 December that negotiations with the developers had not been completed. As a result, previously set deadlines for concluding talks and filing contracts were missed.
The evaluation team, which includes the Department of Energy Resources, National Grid, Eversource and Unitil, now expects negotiations to be completed and contracts executed by 30 June 2026. The filing of the contracts with the Department of Public Utilities is targeted for 31 August, moving the procurement process around two years beyond its original timetable.
Massachusetts selected a total of 2,678 MW of offshore wind capacity across three projects in the September 2024 round. Since then, the contract completion milestone has been delayed multiple times, with one selected project withdrawing from the process and another indicating the potential for a multi-year delay.
State officials have linked the repeated postponements to uncertainty at the federal level affecting offshore wind development. Despite the delays, the Massachusetts administration has reiterated its intention to include offshore wind as part of the state’s broader energy strategy.
Massachusetts has legally binding targets to reduce carbon emissions by at least 50 % from 1990 levels by 2030, at least 75 % by 2040 and at least 85 % by 2050, alongside policies aimed at achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century.
