Rhode Island officials have set a goal of meeting the state’s electricity needs with 100% renewable energy by 2033, and there’s still a long way to go. Last week, the three southern New England states were hoping to procure enough offshore wind to make serious progress toward their climate goals. But Rhode Island only secured one-sixth of the amount of wind energy it could have procured. That’s led some to worry whether offshore wind is really back on track, after a series of projects have been delayed or canceled.
Transcript:
Luis Hernandez: Last week’s announcement was the first news we’ve heard out of this multistate collaboration between Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Giving us some context here, why did the states band together to purchase wind?
Ben Berke: Last year, a bunch of offshore wind farms were under development, and they hit this roadblock where the cost of building them all of a sudden started to rise really fast, and it was becoming unprofitable to continue developing them. That was because of supply chain issues, inflation – which we heard a lot about after the pandemic – rising interest rates, things of that nature.
So Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut throughout all this were still pretty determined to make offshore wind work, because they don’t see any other realistic way to get a massive amount of renewable energy within the next decade. So states that used to buy offshore wind power individually in the past tried to team up and buy wind power together in bulk, in the hopes that this would drive the price of offshore wind electricity back into affordable territory.
Hernandez: And how successful was this tri-state collaboration?
Berke: Massachusetts got what it wanted, basically. The two projects that developers had to cancel last year are under contract again at new prices. So those wind farms have the capacity now to generate enough power for 1.4 million homes, which is a pretty impressive amount of clean power, right Luis?
But Connecticut didn’t announce new wind farms. And Rhode Island announced that it’s buying about 200 more megawatts of offshore wind power with this latest procurement. That’s a lot bigger than the Block Island wind farm, but it’s half the size of Revolution Wind, which is the other wind farm that’s already under development off the coast of Rhode Island. So for the people who are really prioritizing getting off fossil fuels over other concerns, 200 megawatts is a disappointment. This is how Amanda Barker from the Green Energy Consumers Alliance feels about it.
Amanda Barker: 200 megawatts is a step in the right direction, but it’s nowhere near as much as we need to achieve our climate goals.
Hernandez: All right, so what are the positive takeaways here?
Berke: Massachusetts bought enough power to contribute to building a critical mass of offshore wind farms, the kind that developers say they need before they start building more factories, more port facilities and other infrastructure on U.S. soil. The hope is that it’ll be relatively cheaper to build more wind farms once those startup costs are taken care of.
Some people, like Tricia Jedele from the Nature Conservancy, also think it’s a good sign that Rhode Island isn’t making hasty decisions that are going to make it harder for people to pay their utility bills.
Tricia Jedele: I don’t see this as a setback at all. I see this as responsible and responsive government. If there are ratepayer concerns that can’t be resolved, and if that means that the states have to take smaller steps like Rhode Island or take more time like Connecticut into getting there, then that’s what it takes.
Hernandez: All right, Ben, what are you looking out for next as this story unfolds and develops?
Berke: We still don’t know how much Rhode Island and Massachusetts paid for their electricity this time around. We’ll be able to find that out this winter, when the contracts are sent to state regulators for final approval. And that’s important, because as we discussed earlier, the hope is that offshore wind electricity prices are starting to fall back down again, and whatever price Massachusetts and Rhode Island agreed to pay will show us how much that pricepoint is actually moving.
We’re also waiting to see if Connecticut joins the party late and announces if it’s buying offshore wind power too. One of the projects Massachusetts procured might need another power purchaser to become commercially viable. So Connecticut could solve that pretty soon.
And then it’s important to pay attention to the next procurement process these states are already planning. Massachusetts and Rhode Island want to work together again, and each of these procurements is like a building block getting us towards a completely renewable energy grid. So these procurements have to go well if the states are going to decarbonize as fast as they want to.
Hernandez: That’s our South Coast Bureau Reporter Ben Berke. Lots of great insight Ben, thanks so much for talking with me.
Berke: Thanks Luis.
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Publish date : 2024-09-13 06:24:00
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