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Bidding deadlines in ongoing solicitations for offshore wind power capacity in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have been extended by two months, through the end of March.
The three New England states separately announced the revision in their Request for Proposals (RfP) on Thursday without stating the reason for the amended submission timelines. Lauren Diggin, a spokeswoman at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has told Reuters that the revision is anticipated to provide developers with more time to react to the possibility of further guidance from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding key tax credits available to offshore wind projects.
Developers in all three states will be able to submit their proposals by March 27, against an earlier deadline of January 31. The extensions will also lead to a longer bidding window in a multi-state procurement that Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island announced last October to jointly seek proposals for up to 6 GW of offshore wind capacity.
In its fourth and largest offshore wind solicitation launched in August last year, Massachusetts seeks to select up to 3,600 MW of offshore wind generation. Rhode Island’s RFP is targeting 1,200 MW of capacity, while Connecticut aims to award contracts for 2 GW of capacity. Following the changed bidding timeline, the selection of projects has been moved to August 7 and the signing of contracts is scheduled for October 9.
The timeline revisions come after closing an arduous year for the US offshore wind industry that was marked by high inflation, increased interest rates and supply bottlenecks. The past year also saw several developers cancelling their contracts as their projects were no longer considered viable.
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