Bay State Wind, a Massachusetts offshore wind partnership between Ørsted and Eversource, has been designated as a covered project under Title 41 of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).
The FAST Act was signed into law on Dec. 4, 2015. Title 41 of this act, referred to as FAST-41, created a new governance structure, set of procedures, and funding authorities to improve the federal environmental review and authorization process for covered infrastructure projects. As a FAST-41 project, Bay State Wind will benefit from enhanced coordination, transparency, predictability, and oversight of the federal reviews and permitting required prior to construction, according to the developers, which add that Bay State Wind is the first and only offshore wind project – and one of only 38 infrastructure projects nationally – to receive FAST-41 status.
Bay State Wind submitted its bid in December 2017 in response to the commonwealth’s request for proposals for offshore wind energy generation. The facility is a 400 MW-800 MW offshore wind project proposed 25 miles off the Massachusetts South Coast and 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
“With 23 offshore wind farms around the world, we always live up to our commitments to bring projects forward in a timely and responsible fashion,” says Thomas Brostrøm, president of Ørsted North America. “Last year, we were the first to receive approval of an offshore wind site assessment plan, and our pursuit and recent designation of FAST-41 underscores Bay State Wind’s credentials as the most experienced, dependable partner to help Massachusetts realize its ambitions of becoming the hub for offshore wind development in North America.”
“This is a good day for Bay State Wind, but it’s an even better day for the citizens of Massachusetts,” adds Mike Auseré, Eversource’s vice president of business development. “This covered project status will de-risk the permitting process and enhance the likelihood that we will receive our permit authorization on the timeline indicated in our bid.”
