Two offshore wind developers won approval Friday to expand their ongoing plans to bring manufacturing facilities, hundreds of jobs and renewable energy to Maryland.
The order from the state’s Public Service Commission closes the book on Maryland’s second offshore wind solicitation. The first solicitation, in 2017, gave the green light to developers US Wind Inc. and Ørsted Offshore North America to construct their initial projects, which total a combined 368 megawatts of electricity.
Now the PSC has awarded both developers additional Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Credits, or ORECs, which will allow them to expand their projects by more than 1,600 MWs.
With the new ORECs, US Wind and Ørsted (operating as Skipjack Offshore Energy LLC) can build more turbines in their lease energy areas off the coast of Maryland. The developers are also required to follow through on commitments that include the construction of manufacturing facilities that will create hundreds of new jobs. In many cases, all or part of the commitments were contingent on the size of the project expansion approved by the PSC.
