Mayflower Wind, the developer of an offshore wind project located over 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and 20 miles south of Nantucket, has announced that the cost of power to customers from the 804MW of offshore wind power covered by their “Low Cost Energy” bid is on track to drop even further.
This price reduction likely means that the customers of three Massachusetts electric utilities can expect to save over US$ 25 million each year. The savings would come from the newly increased and extended federal Offshore Wind Energy Investment Tax Credit in the recently enacted federal legislation that brought together an omnibus spending bill and comprehensive taxation and energy bill. Mayflower Wind committed to convert the value of those credits into a price reduction for the electricity customers of Massachusetts. Mayflower Wind’s price of $77.76 per megawatt hour, should drop to $70.26 due to this change in federal law and Mayflower’s promise to rebate this value of federal tax credits written into the contracts with National Grid, Eversource, and Unitil. Mayflower Wind expects to start generating power in the mid-2020s.
Mayflower Wind, a 50/50 joint venture between Shell New Energies and Ocean Winds, is developing an offshore wind lease area with the potential to supply over 1.6 gigawatts (GW) of low-cost clean energy to the electricity customers of New England.