Less than one week after visiting the planned site of the Anbaric Renewable Energy Center in Somerset, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey reintroduced legislation to extend an existing tax credit for wind energy companies.
The Offshore Wind Incentives for New Development Act, which Markey has cosponsored with Rhode Island lawmakers U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, would extend the federal government’s existing 30 percent investment tax for the offshore wind industry through 2025.
“Offshore wind has the potential to change the game on climate change, and those winds of change are blowing off the shores of Massachusetts,” Markey said in a statement Tuesday.
Markey’s announcement came days after visiting Brayton Point in Somerset, where the Wakefield-based company Anbaric is developing a facility that will serve as the “plug-in” between offshore wind farms and the power grid on the mainland.
It was during Markey’s visit that he was asked by state Rep. Patricia Haddad and state Sen. Michael Rodrigues what the federal government could do to help incentivize wind energy development in the region. Markey said the current tax credit program is set to expire by the end of the year, but he hoped enough Republican lawmakers from coastal states would support renewing the program.
“We’re working hard to extend it out much further,” Markey said during his visit. “We’re in a Trump era, but that’s our goal.”
News of the potential extension comes at a time when Massachusetts’ SouthCoast and other New England states are working to lure businesses tied to the wind energy industry.
Anbaric’s arrival to Somerset may signal the dawn of a new future for Brayton Point, but its facility only takes up a small portion of the available real estate that the site’s owners are trying to advertise. The site, which had previously been home to the coal-powered Brayton Point Power Station, covers roughly 300 acres, 20 of which will be occupied by Anbaric.
Representatives from Commercial Development Company, which owns the land, have said the company hopes to attract other businesses with ties to wind energy. Across Mount Hope Bay, Fall River officials have said they are actively working with wind energy businesses that they want to open facilities on the section of Taunton River shoreline known as Weaver’s Cove. Fall River is now working to amend its zoning regulations to allow Weaver’s Cove to support a variety of new uses, including wind energy research and manufacturing.
According to a statement provided by Markey’s office, the U.S. Energy Department had projected that offshore wind farms installed off coastlines could generate as much as 22,000 megawatts of power by 2030 and as much as 86,000 by 2050. While these projects could be scattered across the United States' eastern coastline, Markey suggested during his recent visit that many would likely be concentrated off New England’s shores, referring to the region as the “Saudi Arabia of wind.”
“Offshore wind projects are a crucial part of America’s clean energy future, creating tens of thousands of jobs up and down the East Coast and reducing carbon pollution,” Markey said in a statement. “In order to harness this potential, we need to provide this burgeoning industry the long-term certainty in the tax code that it needs.”