After keeping the rest of New England waiting for months, Connecticut has decided to step away from a three-state, offshore energy buy as too expensive and concentrate its decarbonization efforts, at least over the short term, in solar and energy storage projects.
“We took a pass on this round,” Gov. Ned Lamont has said.
The decision deflates a much-promoted effort to cut what some consider the prohibitively high cost of offshore wind energy by arranging for three states, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, to combine in a first-of-its-kind, joint offshore energy auction that it was hoped would increase efficiencies with project scale.
Three of four wind energy developers were chosen by Massachusetts and Rhode Island in September, after Connecticut first raised doubts about its continued participation. Connecticut’s withdrawal, announced definitively Friday, kills one of the three projects, known as Vineyard Wind 2, because the bid was premised on Connecticut and Massachusetts sharing the cost of the energy output.