Story at a glance
- Cables to transfer power generated by offshore wind turbines will be manufactured at the site of an old Massachusetts coal plant.
- Prysmian will acquire the parcel of land in Somerset, Mass., where the Brayton Point Power Station once operated until it was shut down in 2017.
- Brayton was the largest coal-fired generating station in New England and the last to be decommissioned in Massachusetts.
The site of an old Massachusetts coal plant is set to be transformed into a facility to help the state harness the power of the wind.
State officials this week finalized an agreement with Prysmian Group, an Italian company that specializes in producing electrical cables for use in the energy and telecom sectors.
As part of the agreement, Prysmian will acquire a 47-acre parcel of land in Somerset, Mass., where the Brayton Point Power Station once operated until it was shut down in 2017.
Brayton was the largest coal-fired generating station in New England and the last to be decommissioned in Massachusetts. Environmentalists lobbied for years to shut the plant down as it was the state’s number one emitter of toxins into the environment.
Prysmian Group, which has more than 20 plants in other area of the U.S., will now use the site to manufacture submarine power cables that will bring the power generated by several planned offshore wind projects to the electrical grid.
“One of the biggest challenges we will all face as we go forward from here is figuring out how to get the generation to where it needs to go,” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said Thursday while speaking at the old Brayton site.
The cables will harness the power generated from offshore wind turbines off the coast of Massachusetts set to be constructed under the Commonwealth Wind project. The project, developed by energy services company Avangrid, could potentially generate enough energy to power 750,000 homes per year and create 11,000 full time equivalent jobs.
The Vineyard Wind project located about 12 nautical miles from Martha’s Vineyard is set to be the first large-scale offshore wind project in the country and was approved by the Biden administration last year. The project will consist of up to 84 wind turbines and is expected to produce enough energy to power more than 400,000 homes.
“When you do offshore wind you have to be able to transfer the energy where it’s needed. So the infrastructure is next. I think that’s the most important part,” Prysmian Group Senior Vice President Hakan Ozmen said.
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