Decision time for offshore wind cable system in Brayton Point • Rhode Island Current

The Italian company seeking to build an offshore wind cable manufacturing facility at Brayton Point in Somerset has an important decision to make.

Prysmian Group has almost all the necessary permits for a factory described a year ago as a $300 million project. The company recently fought off a challenge to its state air quality permit by a group of 12 Somerset residents, but now those same residents have indicated they will launch a court challenge to the permit. The big question facing Prysmian is whether to put the project on hold during the court battle or start pushing it forward.

A spokesman for Prysmian declined to say what exactly the company will do. “The project is progressing as planned and Prysmian continues to pursue all procedural and legal steps,” the spokesman said.

The uncertainty about the Prysmian power plant reflects the uncertainty about the offshore wind industry in general. The half-finished Vineyard Wind 1, one of the country’s first industrial-scale wind farms, is struggling to get back on track after a turbine blade broke, sending foam and fiberglass washing onto Nantucket beaches. Massachusetts and Rhode Island appear to be moving forward with procuring a large offshore wind turbine, but their partner Connecticut is lagging behind amid concerns about the price of electricity. And Donald Trump is promising to shut down the entire industry if he is elected president next month.

Jamison Souza, chairman of the Somerset Select Board, said he hopes Prysmian moves forward with the project this year. He said the Prysmian power plant will bring much-needed tax revenue to the city, which has struggled since a coal-fired power plant at Brayton Point closed in 2017 and was demolished in 2019.

“These delays and these appeals have a significant impact on taxpayers,” he said.

Delays have become the norm in Brayton Point. After the coal plant was demolished, Brayton Point’s owner marketed the property to the offshore wind industry. But when Trump was in office, he put the industry and Vineyard Wind 1 on hold, prompting Brayton Point’s owner to lease part of the vacant property to a scrap export company that angered a neighboring community by blanketing it with dusty noise. The neighbors banded together against the scrap metal business and eventually shut it down in court.

Prysmian then made plans to build a cable manufacturing facility at Brayton Point to supply the offshore wind industry on the East Coast. The state offered $25 million to build a pier at Brayton Point and the city gave a $20 million tax break. President Biden even came to Brayton Point to highlight the potential of offshore wind to transform America.

Many in Somerset joined the project, but some of the same neighbors who opposed the scrap business became critics of Prysmian and his plans. The neighbors received a number of concessions from Prysmian as the plant went through the local regulatory process, including a promise to convert its cable-laying vessels to run on electricity in port rather than using their diesel engines as a power source.

In April, 12 residents petitioned the state Department of Environmental Protection to review approval of an air permit for the project. On September 26, the DEP commissioner issued final approval for the permit, giving opponents 30 days to decide whether to challenge the decision in court. That 30-day deadline expires this week and residents are signaling they will file a legal challenge.

Souza said Brayton Point is on the verge of becoming a renewable energy hub on the East Coast. He said Prysmian wants to build its facility there, a wind farm that participated in the recent Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut bid wants to bring its power onshore there, and several other offshore wind companies are also eyeing Brayton Point as a possible site .

Nevertheless, it is an uncertain time. Souza fears the presidential election could again throw a spanner in the works for Brayton Point. “There was a lot of uncertainty. Part of this is due to the national elections,” he said. “Our region is really affected by the national elections.”

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.