Wakefield, Massachusetts—Anbaric Development Partners, a leading independent developer of electric transmission projects, today delivered 401 letters from Massachusetts residents to Secretary of the Energy and Environmental Affairs Rebecca Tepper calling for the development of an ocean grid to connect offshore wind farms to shore.
“Achieving the Healey Administration’s bold climate goals depends on scaling offshore wind and proactively developing needed transmission infrastructure,” said Peter Shattuck, New England President at Anbaric. “We are encouraged that Massachusetts residents recognize the environmental and economic benefits of an ocean grid to reach our renewable energy goals.”
The letters note that an ocean grid will be able to deliver power from multiple wind farms, reducing the number of cables in the seabed and shoreline crossings, providing savings, and minimizing environmental and community impacts. The letters call on Massachusetts to work with other New England states to develop a planned, shared ocean grid.
On January 13th, the Commonwealth and five other New England states submitted a concept paper to the Department of Energy for an award through the Grid Innovation Program (GIP), which offers up to $250 million for innovative transmission projects. The New England states’ Joint State Innovation Partnership for Offshore Wind aims to develop up to three sea-to-shore transmission links that could be integrated into an ocean grid.
The concept paper notes that these modular sea-to-shore links can “lower costs to ratepayers, maintain system reliability during the electrification of the transportation and building sectors, and integrate regional clean energy resources through an optimized transmission system.” Additionally, the Joint States Innovation Partnership can reduce the region’s reliance on expensive fossil fuels by “[f]acilitating access to high-capacity offshore wind [which] will help offset the region’s over dependence on natural gas, particularly during the winter season when offshore wind is most abundant, and the risk of natural gas shortages is most likely.”
The concept paper notes that the states “will endeavor to design and begin implementation of a solicitation process prior to the May GIP application deadline, though the feasibility of such an
expedited process is unknown at this time.”
About Anbaric Development Partners
Anbaric is a US-based company focused on planning and scaling renewable energy. Anbaric develops clean energy infrastructure to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy across North America, specializing in the design, development, financing, and construction of large-scale electric transmission and storage systems. For more information visit anbaric.com.
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