Salem bid selected for offshore wind project

SALEM — The offshore wind industry is, officially, on its way to Salem.

State leaders announced Friday afternoon that Commonwealth Wind, a partnership that targets Salem for an offshore wind marshalling yard around the Salem Harbor Footprint property, was selected to provide 1,200 megawatts of power to the state.

“Today’s announcement marks a transformative moment for Salem, our commonwealth, and our planet,” said Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll. “As the planned marshalling and construction staging site for this next generation of major offshore wind power, Salem now has a brighter future.”

For the past year, city officials — and those at Footprint Power — have been warming to the idea of Salem serving as a marshalling yard and landside base of operations for supporting the offshore wind industry. As a marshalling yard, jobs would be created locally to build wind turbines, which would then be shipped out offshore and connected to the grid. The third procurement process targets land around Martha’s Vineyard.

The state recently opened a third bidding process for offshore wind development, this time focusing on 1,600 megawatts of power it sought to generate. Friday’s decision splits the award between both proposals: Mayflower Wind, a competing project, will get 400 megawatts of the contract while Commonwealth Wind will draw the bulk of the award with its 1,200-megawatt proposal, according to the state’s announcement.

For Salem, Driscoll said the news represents “a future with hundreds of green jobs, a substantial expansion of our tax base, major private investments in improving our historic port, unique opportunities for new science, education, and workforce development initiatives, and, most importantly, the ability to take a significant, positive step forward in fighting the climate crisis.”

This site has provided the electricity that powered our community and our commonwealth for decades,” Driscoll said. “Today, with this announcement, that legacy will continue with a new focus on a clean energy future, based on renewable power and with a commitment to real action to mitigate climate change.”

Ward 1 City Councilor Bob McCarthy said he’s “excited and optimistic” about the news, but that the focus has to be on tomorrow.

“It’s exciting, but at the same time, we’re going into it cautiously optimistic,” McCarthy said. “This is just the beginning. The award is great, but now the work starts. It’s a balance of how we’re going to make it work for the neighborhood, how it will work for the region.”

Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.