As Connecticut has moved further into offshore wind power, State Pier has become a premiere staging area for the industry to have success in the northeast.
“This industry moving in here is increasing the revenue many many times that this pier could ever generate,” New London Mayor Michael Passero said.
Disassembled wind turbines currently on the pier are the bones of the South Fork Wind Farm, one of several projects that will use the pier as a port.
“These will be interconnected to New York and delivering power there, and the investment in this project is fully backed by New York ratepayers,” Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes said.
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State Pier will also play a role in the Revolution Wind project, which would generate wind energy to both Connecticut and Rhode Island residents in the coming years.
“We’re excited to see that project move forward. That would supply approximately 3% of Connecticut’s load when it’s interconnected to New England,” Dykes said.
On Wednesday, the state also announced an agreement with Massachusetts and Rhode Island to work together on future offshore wind procurement.
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“It just made all the sense in the world as we knew Massachusetts was going out to bid and Rhode Island was looking to test the market again to talk together about how to coordinate our procurements and maximize our buying power,” Dykes said.
But questions still remain about the economic viability of wind power, particularly after Avingrid terminated its 2019 agreement to take part in Bridgeport’s Park City Wind.
State leaders, including Dykes, remain optimistic about the prospect of the industry as a whole.
“Because of the things that we’ve positioned around the investments in the port, and our ongoing commitments across the region for example, aligning our Request for Proposals with Massachusetts and Rhode Island, all of our work on the economic development strategy, we know our ability to secure economic development activity from off-shore wind is broader than one power-purchase agreement,” Dykes said.
