New York Fails to Reach Contracts with Three Major Offshore Wind Farms

April 19 (Reuters) – A New York state agency on Friday said it had failed to reach final contract agreements with the developers of three major offshore wind projects, blaming a decision by General Electric Vernova to scrap plans for a new turbine.

The projects affected include Attentive Energy One, being developed by TotalEnergies, Rise Light & Power and Corio Generation, Community Offshore Wind, backed by RWE and National Grid Ventures, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority said in a statement. Excelsior Wind, being developed by Vineyard Offshore, is also affected, it said.

Development of offshore wind, an important component of climate plans by President Joe Biden and numerous U.S. states, has been hobbled over the past year by supply chain problems and rising interest rates, forcing multiple cancellations and billions of dollars in write-downs by major developers.

Vineyard Offshore spokesperson Andrew Doba said that this latest round of problems was tied to GE Vernova being unable to deliver its 18 megawatt machine, and said the developer planned to continue with the next offshore wind solicitations. 

GE Vernova did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Offshore wind trade people and environmental groups said the failure to reach final agreements was simply a hiccup in plans to widely expand U.S. offshore wind.

“The U.S. market has been steadily building momentum, and while today’s announcement is disappointing, it is not unexpected and will not impact the market’s overall fundamentals,” offshore wind trades group Oceantic Network said in a statement. 

“Is it a bump in the road? Yes, But the road to success is never a straight line, it has some curves but we are still going to get there,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom, Timothy Gardner and Laila Kearney and Nicole JaoEditing by Chris Reese and Timothy Gardner)

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