The financing and federal permitting for SouthCoast Wind remains murky.
But the path is clear for the Massachusetts offshore wind project to run power lines up the Sakonnet River and across Portsmouth to Mount Hope Bay, with approval from the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board on Tuesday.
Power purchase agreements between the project developer and Massachusetts and Rhode Island utility suppliers are not yet signed — despite a Nov. 1 deadline — amid continued uncertainty over the staying power of offshore wind under the Trump administration.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in D.C. granted the administration’s request Tuesday to reconsider a key federal permit which was already approved in the waning days of the Biden administration. The court decision marks a major setback to the already struggling project, allowing the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to start anew on a comprehensive review of potential environmental and economic consequences of the project.
A spokesperson for SouthCoast Wind did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the court order Tuesday afternoon.
Ronald Gerwatowski, chairman of the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board, acknowledged the “new level of uncertainty” surrounding SouthCoast Wind. But, that did not deter the three-member panel from concluding its yearslong review for the transmission lines that will connect the project, once built, to the onshore electric grid.
“I am very satisfied with the application,” Gerwatowski said Tuesday. “By the time we reached the evidentiary stage, there was no evidence that would support the denial of this license.”
SouthCoast Wind Energy LLC CEO Michael Brown praised the board’s decision as a key step for the project.
“This decision underscores Rhode Island’s leadership and regional commitment to providing much-needed domestic energy through responsible development and with good-paying union jobs,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday.
Unlike federal regulators’ overarching review of the 149-turbine project, proposed 60 miles south of Rhode Island, the state energy panel is only considering a 2-mile section of cables snaking through Aquidneck Island.
SouthCoast Wind Energy, formerly known as Mayflower Wind, filed the application in 2022 to run high-voltage power lines up the Sakonnet River, over the northern tip of Portsmouth and out Mount Hope Bay, connecting to the electric grid in Brayton Point. The review was put on pause in July 2023, after the developer walked away from its initial contract agreements with Massachusetts utility companies in the hopes of securing a better deal.
Rhode Island’s energy board resumed its consideration in September 2024, after the Spanish developer submitted proof of new, tentative agreements with power supplies in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Negotiations with utility suppliers have dragged on well beyond the initial December 2024 deadline, with companies citing the risks posed by the federal government as reason for delays.
The latest deadline on Nov. 1 came and went without a decision or public acknowledgement. Michael Dalo, a spokesperson for Rhode Island Energy, declined to comment on the status of the negotiations in an email Monday. The contracts will determine the project’s financial viability and costs for Rhode Island ratepayers.
The license for the transmission lines is conditioned upon securing other state and federal permits, and financing agreements with utility suppliers. If the developers do not secure these approvals and complete a project within five years — potentially longer if there is justification — the cable license lapses.
“What I didn’t want to happen is that we issued a license that becomes permanent, only to find out the project can’t go forward and then this license sits there which could potentially block use of that route for another offshore wind project,” Gerwatowski explained.
The energy board also asked the developer to consider ways to reduce road closures during construction, though it stopped short of mandating details.
But it rejected a request from the Portsmouth Town Council seeking to limit construction work to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., or at least limit the decibel level to no more than 70 decibels for properties nearest the underwater drilling.
Gerwatowski said he did not want to impose restrictions on noise that could limit progress, but asked the developer to consider “reasonable” limits to noise levels.
Portsmouth Town Council President Keith Hamilton maintained that the council’s request was reasonable.
“Our residents have a right to be able to sleep at night and not to be hearing that noise at all hours of the day and night,” Hamilton said in an interview on Tuesday.
Portsmouth is set to receive $23 million in host fees and taxes over the next 33 years in exchange for allowing the developer to build the transmission lines under town roads. The contract was reluctantly approved by the Town Council in January 2024.
Hamilton acknowledged the funds were a “big deal” — a way to pay for town improvements without raising taxes on residents. But he expressed doubt that the project — and the money — would materialize.
“I don’t see this project ever getting off the ground in the next five to 10 years,” Hamilton, a Republican, said.
A separate permit application related to the SouthCoast cable lines remains under review by the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
