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NEW BEDFORD — The state’s alternative-energy development agency has chosen a waterfront spot for a center devoted to ocean-related power research, building and field-testing equipment, and cultivating new enterprises.
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center wants to lease less than half an acre from the New Bedford Port Authority on MacArthur Drive encompassing the 19th-century Bourne Counting House and a parking area next to it.
The stone structure would provide office and meeting space. A portion of the parking lot is slated for a new structure for building prototypes for ocean-related energy technology — chiefly, but not exclusively, wind power.
“This project is an exciting new opportunity for New Bedford to develop technology businesses, generate new demand for existing businesses, and elevate its stature as a leader in maritime industries,” Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote in a letter to the City Council, sending along a proposed 15-year lease for consideration this week.
Mitchell wrote that the center — to be established next to Merrill’s restaurant, across MacArthur Drive from the Fairfield Inn & Suites — “will establish a platform on which marine technology of all types can be developed and commercialized into new businesses.” He said it will also serve as a meeting point for industry conferences.
“There is an emerging marine science and tech cluster in the South Coast and the Rhode Island area. We want to support that,” said Bruce Carlisle, managing director of offshore wind for MassCEC. “This will expand New Bedford’s role around ocean renewable energy and ocean climate tech.”
Carlisle said early this year that because New Bedford is becoming a center of the offshore wind industry, it made sense as a spot for the Ocean Renewable Energy Innovation Center. He said then that the project would enhance the city’s role in the industry and be part of the state’s effort to reduce carbon emissions to curb climate change.
“New Bedford has a tremendous amount of infrastructure, marine services, and a deep water port,” Carlisle said. “We believe that, if we are going to lean into an innovation center, it should be in New Bedford.”
Carlisle has estimated that the center will cost about $1.5 million a year to operate, likely supported by a mix of federal funds, corporate sponsorships, and lease payments from main tenants.
He said earlier this year that the center is meant to eventually accommodate about two dozen startup companies at full capacity and five to eight industry partners. He added that the industry partners likely won’t have their main offices in the center, but will instead use the center for their research and development teams.
In an interview with The Light on Monday, Mayor Mitchell spoke of the importance of broadening the scope of industries on the Port of New Bedford. While previous investment has focused on physical jobs related to the offshore wind industry, the center is among the first projects that expand into the creative and innovative spaces of the clean-energy industry.
“When it comes to the maritime industries, we want to be a city of both big shoulders and big brains,” Mitchell said. “There is a tremendous amount of pent-up knowledge and know-how here in New Bedford. A place like this that enables researchers and corporations to put their heads together will create greater efficiencies and great new ideas and businesses to emerge.”
The CEC’s schedule calls for work on the project to begin early next year and operations starting in the summer of 2026. The state has allocated $15 million for the venture, including $10 million from federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“We have built out a great deal of the port over the last few years,” Mitchell said. “We also need a place where new innovation is materialized and commercialized so that we can continue to have a competitive edge over other ports.”
The project includes no costs for the city, Mitchell says. Starting next January, the city is due to collect $38,000 a year in lease payments, adjustable annually to changes in the Consumer Price Index. That’s equal to the sum the Port Authority — which is expected to vote on the lease on Sept. 24 — receives in parking fees from the site, the mayor’s letter says.
“This is all upside for New Bedford,” Mitchell said. “In the best-case scenario, this becomes a national leader in innovation that competes against similar facilities being built elsewhere, like in Brooklyn. In the worst-case scenario, if it doesn’t succeed, the city gets the building at the end of the lease term.”
Merrill’s restaurant is expected to stay open, and the Ground Floor coffee shop and catering business are expected to continue operations in the counting house, also known as the Merrill’s Wharf Building. The hotel and the restaurant, which use the parking lot, will be accommodated with parking across the street at the old Eversource site, Mitchell’s letter says.
A CEC summary of the project prepared for the City Council this month says the site was chosen from an original list of seven prospects, winnowed to five. The agency issued a 100-page report on the venture last December, and put out a request for information on potential sites early this year.
The agency originally said they were looking for building space at least 37,000 square feet within a quarter-mile of the waterfront.
“You can open a coworking space anywhere,” Carlisle said. “The differentiator here is direct access to the ocean. If we are going to be a leader in climate tech and innovation, these startups need to be able to demonstrate to their buyers that their technology works in its intended environment: the ocean.”
Mitchell says there’s good reason to believe the center will succeed.
“Incubators work best when they are in a fertile economic ecosystem,” he said, in an interview. “We have one of the densest concentrations of maritime businesses in the U.S. A place where people can bring their ideas to be implemented is exactly what we have needed for a long time.”
Earlier this year, both Mitchell and Carlisle mentioned the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in the United Kingdom as a model for what this center in New Bedford could become. If the operation here is doing that kind of work in five to 10 years, it would be a success, Carlisle said at the time.
The Catapult web site shows that the operation, established in 2013, has built more robust supply chains for the industry, and has worked on wind turbine blade design, cable systems, robotics for maintenance, and better communications to bolster worker safety in remote field locations.
Recent events have spotlighted continuing challenges in wind turbine technology, and field practices.
In July, a blade on an offshore turbine that is part of the Vineyard Wind 1 project broke off, scattering fiberglass and foam debris that washed up on beaches in Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Westport. The manufacturer, GE Vernova, in early reports attributed the failure to a manufacturing error.
In August, another GE Vernova turbine blade failed, this time at the Dogger Bank wind farm off the northeast coast of England. It was the third blade failure in four months.
GE Vernova has said the incidents were not related. The first was tied to an installation error, and the most recent was apparently due to human error, in that the blade was left locked in a fixed position that made it more susceptible to breaking during high winds.
The ORE center would complement New Bedford’s role as the staging ground for the Vineyard Wind 1 project, one of the United States’ first commercial wind farms, being built about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The farm is designed to include 62 turbines producing 800 megawatts, or about enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. Vineyard Wind’s first turbines began delivering power to the electric grid in early January. Its electricity production has been suspended since July because of the broken blade.
Last spring, the first turbine parts arrived at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal from Portugal aboard a heavy-load carrier.
The moment was a turning point the work developing the Port of New Bedford for offshore wind operations that began about eight years ago, involving about $1 billion in city, state, federal and private investment, including removing polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCB contamination, from the harbor after decades of industrial dumping.
New Bedford Light reporter Will Sennott contributed to this story. You can reach the reporters at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org and wsennott@newbedfordlight.org.
This new center sounds very exciting and a good fit for New Bedford .I only hope the design team will keep the historic theme in its plans A building that fits the warefront.
This innovation center located on the waterfront and in the center of New,Bedfords many supporting maritime supply industries will be,a great economic boost for the city.I notice in the architectural design large blocks I hope these will be glass and that one at least an inviting and creative mural celebrating wind power and inviting oral artists in the design.Also think about placing a work training center of BCC here rather than on current Purchase street..this,way students could be directly involved as,apprentices. Lastly the city and state should campaign to place a GE blade factory here ..more cost effective than shipping from Europe to Gaspe then south to here..just a thought
Large blocks of glass are bad for birds.
Another government (taxpayer subsidized) boondoggle that will never bear significant fruit for regular people. Brace for more congestion at the working fishing port and higher power bills.
The investigation of the blade fiasco has been going on since July 13.
Many questions have been raised :In 2019 GE / LM Wind developed a new “hybrid ” 107 meter (350 foot blade).
There was no place in the world to test blades over 90 meters ( 300 feet ).
The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center -Wind Technolgy Test Center was only 300 feet
The MassCEC WTTC site cut over 50 feet off the blade to enter the site
The blade was tested in what is called a sub-component method
The blade was tested and certified at the MassCEC
The testing of the prototype blade paved the way for the production of 150 blades in Canada.
The same method of testing was conducted in Europe as a complete 107-meter (350-foot blade)
The history of the mass-produced blades in the last six months shows the newly developed “hybrid” blades are being tested in the ocean.
This raises the question of whether the wind industry should stay with the more expensive carbon fiber rather than the hybrid blades or smaller blades.
It’s sad that a once great historic whaling city is now part of destroying the ocean. Wind power is going nowhere. It generates little power to appease a few useless fringe groups in society.
ah yes because whaling, ground fishing and dredging for scallops are notoriously good for the ocean…
What an Ugly Building to place near an iconic and historic building on the waterfront!!! New Bedfordites to Protest against this Design!!!!
Amen! Ugly! My first impression! I propose it for a new location on the waterfront if that is going to be the design – put it on the gas tank lots, former casino proposal, or further down the road away from the historic water front building.
I’ve always loved the old counting house, and am glad it’s being kept. But why isn’t the design of the new building more compatible with it? Driving down route 18, it will stick out like a sore thumb! Shows a real lack of imagination and appreciation for historical area downtown.
The design of this building is so inappropriate‼️
It’s “IN YOUR FACE” and it will look disgusting next to the Bourne Counting House, not to mention Lori’s comment on the glass facade killing birds! If this is built, PLEASE be more respectful in the design of the structure. Thank you!
Regardless of what becomes of this project New Bedford will still be the gutter of Massachusetts. The school system will still suck and the level of unreported crime will still keep sensible people from wanting to do anything here after dark.
The Mayor has had far too long to prove himself as someone who can change New Bedford. This is like watching a sink fill drip by drip. Jon Mitchell will be in his 80’s before New Bedford is even half as nice as Providence. And by then, we will all know that industrializing the ocean was a big mistake.
Smart people all know: If you can leave, you do.
I’d encourage anyone bemoaning the design to visit any other port city in the world where modern buildings, designed for modern uses sit beside historic buildings. It’s the 21st century and we now have a plethora of materials better suited for a waterside location than giant granite blocks.
No problem with modern but this plan loos like really bad Paul Rudolph, wish they could rework the old electric building. That’s a beauty. Where’s WHALE! When you need it.
In 20 years after New Bedford has become gentrified like so many other places in Massachusetts, I bet the few remaining locals will bemoan that they didn’t fight against this kind of thing harder. Jon Mitchell pretty much admitted on the radio today that off-shore wind hasn’t created any local jobs, despite what he used to say about it. This will be more of the same. Crooked Jon needs to go.
Offshore wind is a temporary industry selling our fishing industry out is going to have horrible repercussions not even in operation blades have failed and polluted our ocean and beaches vineyard winds response and clean up was pathetic
Wake up East Coast! This will be one of the most costly mistakes that has ever been made up and down the coast. Not green. Not clean.
Better yet…. How about a 1960’s supermarket design? The gull winged overhangs to the entrances would fit in well with the waterfront feel. Ridiculous. There has to be a better design, better building to utilize that space. You local politicians need to think bigger and not just accept the crumbs the state is throwing us.