Energy company Eversource is looking into divesting its interests in offshore wind in the Northeast. It has hired Goldman Sachs to review its clean energy portfolio to potentially sell its share of the long-planned Revolution Wind offshore wind farm in Connecticut and other projects in the region.
Revolution Wind is one of three major offshore wind farms planned with Danish power company Ørsted for the coast off of Southern New England, including New York’s first offshore wind project South Fork Wind.
An Eversource spokesperson said recent market trends, such as pricing for offshore wind leases, could be a strategic opportunity for the company to sell all or part of their leases to a single or multiple buyers and invest that money to support other clean energy development.
Eversource is also part of the joint venture to redevelop State Pier in New London into a hub for offshore wind construction. The utility company said they remain committed to Revolution Wind with Ørsted — expected to generate 400 megawatts of electricity to Rhode Island and 304 megawatts of electricity to Connecticut, helping both states meet their clean energy goals.
Andrew Lavigne, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Port Authority, said Eversource’s announcement has no impact on the State Pier project and should Eversource sell their share in the project they look forward to working with whoever the buyer is to sustain maximum utilization of the State Pier facility for the future.
“Eversource has been a valuable local partner for us as we’ve grown our business and successfully advanced our vision in the U.S. market, which has expanded, matured and appreciated since Eversource partnered with us in 2016," David Hardy, CEO of Ørsted Offshore North America, said in a statement, citing the 25 auctions for offshore leases in the New York Bight between Long Island and New Jersey raking in $4.37 billion. “We will be engaged in the strategic review throughout the process, while Eversource and Ørsted continue to advance and build out projects in the joint venture unimpacted by this initiative.”
