Three years ago, the concrete cooling towers at the Brayton Point Power Plant crumbled to the ground in a controlled explosion that some considered a harbinger of America’s clean energy transition. Within seconds, the remains of what was once the Town of Somerset’s main employer and heaviest polluter became a pile of rubble.
The demolition cleared one of the largest parcels of waterfront property in the northeast United States for redevelopment, which state officials advertised as a prime site for the promising offshore wind industry.
But a deal to redevelop Brayton Point proved more elusive than expected, despite the property’s connections to the regional power grid and proximity to an interstate highway.
Cape Wind, the nation’s first proposed offshore wind venture, had recently folded under political opposition. The firm that purchased the former power plant, the Commercial Development Company, wound up leasing the land to a scrap metal operation.
The procession of trucks and the clouds of dust now emanating from Brayton Point have become a hot-button issue in Somerset. The town government has issued more than $3 million in fines that the Commercial Development Company is now fighting in court.
But the stalled dreams at Brayton Point appear to be at a turning point.
The Prysmian Group, one of the world’s largest cable manufacturers, closed a deal on Thursday to purchase 50 of the site’s 306 acres, with plans to open a factory to supply undersea electric cable to some of the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farms.
The factory was promised as part of a joint proposal spearheaded this winter by Avangrid and Vineyard Wind, energy companies that have already received government contracts to sell electricity from offshore wind farms the partnership is developing 15 miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
Hakan Ozmen, an executive at the Prysmian Group, said the cable factory in Somerset will employ at least 200 people.
“We are bringing technology that, in the U.S., still doesn’t exist. These are submarine, high-tech cables,” Ozmen said. “We will do an investment that can be easily expanded. The capacity can be tripled.”
If constructed, the factory would be the first major piece of the offshore wind industry’s manufacturing supply chain to locate in New England rather than Europe, where offshore wind farms have been generating electricity since the 1990s.
Building an offshore wind cluster
Massachusetts, one of the leaders in the development of offshore wind power in the U.S., currently has the nation’s largest pipeline of offshore wind projects under development.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration estimates the four offshore wind farms that have already won contracts from the state’s utility companies will supply enough electricity, when completed, to meet roughly 25 percent of Massachusetts’ electricity needs.
Several of those projects are still subject to federal approval, but President Biden’s administration has already announced intentions to approve enough offshore wind projects to generate 30 gigawatts of electricity before the end of the decade, about 19 times the amount Massachusetts currently has under development.
Prysmian’s proposed cable factory in Somerset could eventually be one piece in a larger cluster of offshore wind suppliers and infrastructure on Brayton Point.
Mayflower Wind, another offshore wind company with a contract in place in Massachusetts, plans to use a power substation on Brayton Point to connect its offshore wind farms to New England’s electricity grid.
Stephen Collins, an executive vice president at the Commercial Development Company, said the site has already drawn interest from several other companies that manufacture pieces of offshore wind turbines.
“We think it’s going to be the best wind energy port, certainly in New England, and one of the best on the East Coast,” Collins said.
The Prysmian proposal is already turning the tide among some of the Commercial Development Company’s strongest opponents in town.
Somerset Selectman Kathy Souza, a founder of the group Save Our Bay Brayton Point whose complaints triggered heavy fines against the Commercial Development Company, said a longstanding Prysmian factory in nearby Dighton has already proven to be a good neighbor.
“We’ll still have the scrap metal company and we’re still going to fight the pollution on that end but I’m thrilled to see things are moving in the right direction,” Souza said.
Executives from Prysmian and Avangrid said the proposed factory in Somerset could be sending undersea cables out its doors within four years.
Ben Berke is the South Coast Bureau Reporter for The Public’s Radio. He can be reached at bberke@thepublicsradio.org. Follow him on Twitter @BenBerke6.
