Days after signing legislation to increase Connecticut's renewable energy mandate, Gov. Dannel Malloy announced that the state will invest $15 million to revitalize an existing New London shipping pier in an effort to attract offshore wind developers.
Malloy suggested that an improved Connecticut State Pier would make an ideal launching point for the deployment of workers and equipment for regional offshore wind projects as Connecticut and nearby states ramp up efforts to procure energy from such projects.
"In the next 12 years, we expect to see 7 to 8 gigawatts of new, offshore wind power come online in the northeast alone," Malloy said in a press release. "With that new energy comes real economic opportunities for our region. As a result of these improvements, New London will be the perfect location to support the expansion of offshore wind."
The investment, which Malloy called a "first step" in the revitalization effort, will help fund various site improvements, including needed demolition, construction of a heavy lift pad, improvements to load-bearing capacity and replacement of mooring structures. Funding for the pier improvements still must be approved by the State Bond Commission.
Building upon Connecticut's 20% by 2020 renewable portfolio standard, Malloy on May 24 signed into law Senate Bill 9, which boosts the state's RPS to 40% of statewide electricity consumption by 2030. The law qualifies solar, wind, run-of-the-river hydropower, landfill methane gas, biomass, fuel cells and anaerobic digestion as renewable energy resources.
S.B. 9 also will establish a competitive auction process to replace net metering rates and direct the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to craft a fixed compensation rate for residential rooftop solar that ensures developers recover their costs and earn a fair rate of return.
In addition to creating a clean energy program for low-to-moderate-income customers and expanding opportunities for municipalities, state agencies and agricultural customers to deploy renewables through competitive auctions, the legislation creates successor renewable incentive programs to the expiring low-emission, zero-emission and solar home renewable energy credits programs. The measure also requires that the state not limit or infringe the rights and ability of its clean energy finance vehicle, the CT Green Bank, to maintain enough financial capacity to meet its contractual commitments.
That bill passed the Connecticut state Senate in a 29-3 vote on May 7 and the House of Representatives 100-45 on May 9. An accompanying bill, S.B. 7, or "An Act Concerning Climate Change and Resiliency," also passed the Senate as amended 34-2 and the House 137-11 on May 9.
A spokesperson for the governor said Malloy intends to sign S.B. 7, which sets an interim target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions 45% from 2001 levels by 2030 as the state progresses toward an already agreed-upon 80% reduction in 2001 levels by 2050.
S.B. 7 also includes measures aimed at mitigating the impacts on coastal shorelines of a rise in sea level of nearly 2 feet by 2050 due to climate change by moving coastal boundary maps inland to reflect the expected sea level rise. It further would require all future projects located in the coastal boundary and floodplain, either undertaken by a state agency or funded by a state or federal grant or loan, to abide by sea level projections.
