August 6, 2017 | News Brief | Deepwater Wind has unveiled plans for its newest project off the American coast: Revolution Wind, a utility-scale offshore wind farm paired with an energy storage system. Deepwater Wind is proposing the 144-megawatt Revolution Wind farm, paired with a 40 megawatt-hour battery storage system provided by Tesla, in response to the Commonwealths request for proposals for new sources of clean energy in Section 83D of the Act to Promote Energy Diversity. Deepwater Wind also provided alternative bids for a larger 288 MW version of Revolution Wind and a smaller 96 MW version.
“Revolution Wind will be the largest combined offshore wind and energy storage project in the world,” said Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski. “People may be surprised by just how affordable and reliable this clean energy combo will be. Offshore wind is mainstream and it is coming to the US in a big way.”
“Revolution Wind is flexible and scalable. That’s a serious advantage of offshore wind; we can build to the exact size utilities need,” Grybowski said. “We can build a larger project if other New England states want to participate now or we can start smaller to fit into the regions near-term energy gaps. And our pricing at any size will be very competitive with the alternatives.”
Revolution Winds offshore wind-battery storage pairing will allow the Commonwealth to meet two policy goals. First, by reliably delivering clean energy, backed up with energy storage, during the times when the grid needs it most, Revolution Wind will help to defer the need to construct costly new peaking generating facilities and controversial transmission lines.
Second, Revolution Wind will advance offshore wind development in Massachusetts by providing an avenue to launch the new industry with an initial smaller-scale project, and phase in larger projects in close succession. This way, the Commonwealths ratepayers will benefit from increased competition and declining costs, and the regional supply chain will steadily mature.
At 144 megawatts, Revolution Wind could be built in a single construction season, and developed more cost-effectively, and with considerably less risk, than a larger project.
Deepwater Wind will build Revolution Wind in the company’s federal lease site off the coast of Massachusetts. The site is located 30 miles from the mainland and about 12 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The wind farm will be adjacent to Deepwater Winds South Fork Wind Farm, a 90 MW project serving Long Island. Fully-built, the lease site has the potential to host 2 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.
If approved, local construction work on Revolution Wind would begin in 2022, with the project in operations in 2023. Survey work is already underway at Deepwater Winds lease area.
Deepwater Wind also intends to submit an offshore wind proposal under Massachusetts separate 83C offshore wind RFP; those bids are due in December 2018.
