State’s law could supercharge offshore wind farms

Massachusetts lawmakers are drafting a bill that would jump-start the offshore wind industry in the U.S., helping trigger a $10 billion building spree off the Atlantic coast.

The energy bill is expected to require utilities to purchase power from offshore wind farms.

Still to be determined is how much power utilities would be forced to buy under the bill and, crucially, whether the state’s Republican governor, who has already opposed one offshore project, will sign it.

Developers want legislators to mandate the sale of 2,000 megawatts over a decade, enough to power roughly 1.6 million households.

Building the infrastructure to deliver that capacity would cost about $10 billion, according to an analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It also would give developers their first chance to build the farms on a mass scale outside Europe and Asia, in a region where powerful ocean winds and high energy prices will provide a key proving ground.

— Bloomberg

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