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The next round of offshore wind power projects for Massachusetts moved even further out of reach Monday when state officials got word that project developers and utilities will not meet Monday’s already-delayed target for finalizing contracts and likely won’t submit contracts for state approval until 2026.

The delays affect two projects proposed off Massachusetts, SouthCoast Wind and New England Wind, both of which have plans to use the Port of New Bedford to support construction or long-term operations. 

The latest delays are due to “federal level activities,” a letter to the state says — a reference to the Trump administration’s freeze of new offshore wind permits.

Massachusetts selected 2,678 megawatts of offshore wind power, spread across three projects, in September 2024, kicking off contract negotiations. One of those projects, Vineyard Wind 2, has since removed itself from consideration. Another, SouthCoast Wind, has announced a delay of at least two years. Massachusetts gets no meaningful energy from offshore wind, almost nine years after a clean energy law set the state on a path of decarbonization.

The next milestone after project selection has repeatedly been delayed —  the contract execution date was originally Aug. 14, 2024, and it has now been delayed at least four times since the projects were chosen to begin negotiations.

The utilities negotiating contracts with those projects informed the Department of Public Utilities in a letter Monday that they will not meet the June 30 target for finishing contract talks, or the Aug. 25 target date for contract filings. The evaluation team involved in the process, which includes the Department of Energy Resources, National Grid, Eversource and Unitil, said the latest delays are “[d]ue to ongoing uncertainty caused by federal level activities.”

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum, freezing all offshore wind permitting and leasing. Under-construction projects have generally gotten by unscathed (with the exception of Empire Wind in New York, which was halted for a month but restarted), but those slated for construction in the next few years — like New England Wind and SouthCoast Wind — have been put at risk.  

The evaluation team said it now expects completed negotiations and executed contracts by Dec. 31, 2025, and that those contracts will be filed with the DPU (the step at which ratepayers can learn the cost of the projects) by Feb. 25, 2026.

“While the utilities and developers continue their hard work to memorialize the bids in binding contracts, the uncertainty created by the changing federal landscape makes it difficult to finalize contracts. Massachusetts is committed to an all-of-the-above approach to energy, including offshore wind,” Lauren Diggin, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy Resources, said on Monday. “Offshore wind produced locally in Massachusetts will help lower costs, create thousands of jobs, and move us toward energy independence.”

SouthCoast Wind has cited Trump’s wind memo as directly contributing to this delay. The company’s CEO stated in court filings that the continuation of the memo would make achieving the contract agreements “impossible.”

“SouthCoast Wind supports the deadline extension for contract execution. We continue to work with Massachusetts and Rhode Island to establish contract terms that can account for the uncertainty and the indefinite delay created by the Presidential Memorandum on Offshore Wind,” said Michael Brown, CEO of Ocean Winds and SouthCoast Wind, in a statement Monday.  

“It is critical that the special review called for by the Presidential Memorandum be resolved as soon as possible to ensure that regulatory instability does not jeopardize the viability of large infrastructure projects like SouthCoast Wind,” he continued. 

Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for Avangrid, which is developing New England Wind, said the company declined comment on the contract delay. 

Also this week, filings from the federal government are due in to a federal judge in Massachusetts.

The judge wants Trump administration lawyers to file administrative records documenting the decision to implement Trump’s wind order. The judge will examine the filings to determine whether the order comports with the relevant laws — or if it should be enjoined, as the states are requesting in their multi-state suit against the Interior Department.

Massachusetts has only one offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind 1, under construction and sending a small amount of power to the grid. A blade failure in July 2024 led to a months-long shutdown, construction delays, and a January order to replace all the project’s Canadian-made blades with blades made in France. 

New England Wind is fully permitted, but SouthCoast Wind requires three  federal permits, including one from NOAA Fisheries.

New England Wind plans to construct the project out of Salem, but house its long-term operations and maintenance hub in New Bedford. Contingent on the project moving forward, the Danish company, Liftra, also plans to establish a crane manufacturing facility in the city. New England Wind’s lease area is located south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The project’s first phase plans to install up to 800 megawatts, which could power up to 400,000 homes.

SouthCoast Wind has said it intends to create union jobs, hire New Bedford fishermen, and use the under-construction Foss terminal in the city for long-term project operations and maintenance. 

The project has an agreement with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to occupy the terminal in New Bedford for offshore construction starting in 2029, paying about $12 million in rent per year. The 29-acre site is currently being used by Vineyard Wind. 

SouthCoast Wind’s lease is about 30 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The first phase is to develop 1,200 megawatts. Ultimately, the project plans to install up to 141 turbines, which could power more than 800,000 homes in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 

Elected officials in Massachusetts are relying on development of new clean power infrastructure to help achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, a requirement codified into state law.

Massachusetts faces interim targets along the path to 2050 under the law. By 2030, the state must reduce greenhouse gas emissions 50% below 1990 levels.

In 2021, the most recent year with data available, state officials reported they had reduced emissions 28% below 1990 levels.

Light reporter Anastasia E. Lennon contributed reporting to this story.

3 replies on “Offshore wind power contracts delayed, again, to 2026”

  1. On November 8, 2020, the Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker administration approved the contracts for offshore wind power generation from the Mayflower Wind project, today known as SouthCoast Wind.

    The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued an order approving contracts between SouthCoast Wind and Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil power companies.

    In 2023, Massachusetts allowed SouthCoast Wind to walk away from the signed PPA contracts. The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities required SouthCoast to pay 60 million in termination fees.

    Massachusetts allowed new contracts for SouthCoast Wind later in 2023.

    The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities issued this new offshore agreement, Mass DPU 23-42, on May 31, 2023, over two years ago for SouthCoast Wind. The execution of the Power Purchase Agreement contract negotiations has been extended to November 7, 2024, then to January 15, 2025, and subsequently to March 31, 2025, and then to June 30, 2025.

    The Massachusetts DPU has claimed for years that Bay Staters can expect to save on utility bills with offshore wind power. There is very little offshore wind generating power in the Commonwealth, and ratepayers pay 30 percent more than in other parts of the country.

    State officials and utilities are omitting facts from the public. In 2017, the 1000-megawatt Brayton Point Coal Plant closed. In 2019, the 680-megawatt Pilgrim Nuclear Plant was shut down. In 2024, the 1400-megawatt natural gas Mystic Generating Station was shut down.

    The state has replaced these plants with 100 megawatts of land-based wind power and less than 100 megawatts of offshore wind.

    The Massachusetts energy policy is a catastrophic failure. Time to go SMR, small safe modular nuclear energy.

  2. Craig Gilvarg has the easiest job in the offshore wind industry. A spokesperson not allowed to speak.

  3. Are Massachusetts residents ingaged in their communities enough? Three strikes hour out people this is ridiculous!

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