'Shockingly' low prices for Massachusetts energy thanks to US offshore wind

The first ever large offshore wind project in the US has set a record for the lowest energy prices, which will make electricity across Massachusetts cheaper than any analyst could have anticipated.

The Vineyard Wind project, which is the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in America, has a capacity of 800MW and is situated just off the coast of Massachusetts. The wind farm was jointly developed by Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

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The “shockingly” cheap energy will start from just $74mn per MW hour, with this pricing having been published for the Phase 1 project this week. The figure is to increase by 2.5% per year for the next 20 years, and applies to both energy and renewable energy credits.

Bloomberg states the low prices equate to $1.4bn in savings for Massachusetts electricity users over the next two decades, with the energy coming in at around 18% cheaper than alternative sources.

Tom Harries, a wind analyst at Bloomberg NEF said: “That’s pretty shocking for us. I think the wider industry expected much higher prices. The repercussions of this are it will probably awaken a lot of other coastal states to the value of offshore wind.”