Mayflower Wind and Anbaric Development Partners recently announced they have signed an agreement for Mayflower Wind to use transmission assets developed by Anbaric to bring offshore wind to Brayton Point.
Mayflower Wind will bring clean offshore wind energy from its federal offshore energy lease area to Brayton Point, which will lay the foundation for the broad repowering of Brayton Point.
Brayton Point’s robust grid infrastructure and waterfront location make it an ideal interconnection location for offshore wind. The Mayflower Wind offshore wind-energy project will use state-of-the-art high voltage direct current technology that minimizes marine cabling, reduces energy losses, and strengthens the New England grid. Over the past three years, Anbaric has taken steps to develop the site as an optimal location to integrate offshore wind into the New England electric grid. Throughout that time, there have been many collaborative conversations between Anbaric and Mayflower about the electrical connection that would be a key element in the regeneration of Brayton Point.
When fully built out, and with continuing advancements in wind technology, Mayflower Wind’s lease area will supply more than 2,000 MW of offshore wind, enough to power nearly a million homes. Mayflower Wind’s use of the existing grid connection will help set in motion the development of supporting infrastructure at Brayton Point needed to revitalize the former coal plant site and enable Somerset and the South Coast to benefit from the rapidly expanding offshore wind industry. This cable landing in Somerset will supplement Mayflower’s long-standing and continuing efforts in Falmouth on Cape Cod.
“Mayflower Wind is committed to helping Massachusetts and New England achieve their ambitious clean-energy goals,” said Mayflower Wind CEO Michael Brown. “The transmission infrastructure at Brayton Point initially developed by Anbaric, and now owned by Mayflower, will help us make those goals a reality. We look forward to collaborating with the community as we invest in and develop this project to bring clean energy to Brayton Point and beyond.”
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Mayflower Wind to bring our unique expertise to scale offshore wind and achieve renewable energy goals,” said Anbaric CEO Clarke Bruno. “Brayton Point is a unique site to bring offshore wind to our shores while also bringing infrastructure investment and responsible development to the local community.”
For 50 years, Brayton Point was home to the 1,600-MW coal-fired Brayton Point Power Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in New England and the last in Massachusetts. The plant was closed in 2017, and in 2019, Anbaric presented a vision to create a Renewable Energy Center on the site of the shuttered plant. One aspect of that vision was bringing power ashore at Brayton Point — Mayflower Wind is now moving to translate that element into reality.
Mayflower Wind is continuing with its efforts in Falmouth, Massachusetts, to connect its first 804-MW project into the New England electric grid via the Cape Cod interconnection point.
“Massachusetts just issued its third solicitation to bring up to another 1,600 MW of offshore wind online,” Brown said. “Mayflower Wind looks forward to delivering on the Commonwealth’s commitments to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Our position at Brayton Point only strengthens our efforts to provide additional clean offshore wind energy to New England.”
More info: www.mayflowerwind.com
Caption:
Mayflower wind project infrastructure. (Courtesy: Mayflower Wind)
