Offshore wind developers will use Port of New Bedford, Marine Commerce Terminal

New Bedford and the South Coast region took an important step today toward realizing the promise of offshore wind. Three offshore wind energy companies agreed to use the $113 million Marine Commerce Terminal in the Port of New Bedford to stage the wind farms they plan to build off the coast of Massachusetts.
Representatives of Bay State Wind, Offshore ME and Deepwater Wind signed a letter of intent in a ceremony at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, with Gov. Charlie Baker, Rep. Pat Haddad, Mayor Jon Mitchell and other government leaders looking on.
The agreement comes just a month after Gov. Baker signed landmark energy legislation that includes 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind. He lauded the vision and perseverance of supporters, who fought for years for offshore wind and in June battled into the final hours of the legislative session.
Noting that he is a relative newcomer to supporting offshore wind, Baker said, “Massachusetts is an ideal place for the offshore wind industry to flourish, innovate and develop, bringing quality jobs and long-term economic growth.”
Mayor Jon Mitchell said the day’s signing was the culmination of years of work by Matt Morrissey, vice president of Deepwater Wind; Paul Vigeant, executive director of the Wind Energy Center; Rep. Pat Haddad and rest of the South Coast legislative delegation and others.
He said that when he became mayor, he immediately saw the wisdom of having offshore wind in New Bedford. The port lands the most valuable catch of any fishing port in the country and hosts economic activity that contributes two percent to the state’s GDP. The city also is a nationally recognized leader in green energy.
He vowed, however, that New Bedford would compete hard for the offshore wind industry and not “just sit back and wait for it to happen.”
Morrissey predicted that offshore wind will become “a substantial industrial player in the economy of Southeastern Massachusetts.” In fact, the industry will soon become a reality in the United States, when five turbines start spinning at Deepwater Wind’s newly built 30 megawatt Block Island Wind Farm. Morrissey is the former managing director of Offshore Wind: Massachusetts and before that was head of the New Bedford Wind Energy Center.
Rep. Haddad said the backing of Gov. Baker and Energy Secretary Matthew Beaton was the result of “a lot of nagging” by supporters of offshore wind. But the work was not just for the City of New Bedford or the South Coast, she said, but for all of Massachusetts and New England.
Read news accounts at the Boston Globe, Southcoast Today, CBS News, and the Boston Business Journal.