Wind projects a possible turning point for 18 ports

Proposals due end of June

Offshore wind projects planned for the waters off the Bay State could breathe new life into more than a dozen shuttered ports, officials said, as power companies look for properties to assemble turbines and conduct mechanical operations for the deep-water energy developments.

In a report released yesterday, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center highlighted 18 port sites in Boston, Quincy, Fall River, Somerset and New Bedford that may be of interest for the three offshore wind companies that hold leases for federal waters south of Martha’s Vineyard and are vying to be the first out of the gate when power contracts go out to bid later this month.

The center’s chief executive, Steve Pike, said the wave of offshore business could bring many oncebooming Bay State ports back to life.

“What this has the prospect of doing is revitalizing not just the marine aspects of the harbor, but also the neighborhoods themselves,” Pike told the Herald. “If you look at the areas around some of those facilities, they are some neighborhoods that are struggling the most to pull themselves up out of the struggles that came along with the collapse of the marine commerce industry.”

The sites, many former coal plants — like Brayton Point in Somerset, which shut down yesterday — would be in addition to the industry’s $113 million New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal. The terminal, originally built to stage the now-defunct Cape Wind project, is now being eyed by Deepwater Wind, DONG Energy and Vineyard Wind as a staging site.

The clean energy center’s assessment tagged seven Boston-area sites, including three in the Seaport, the Boston Autoport in Charlestown, two East Boston locations and the Fore River shipyard in Quincy. Six locations in New Bedford and five in Fall River were also included.

Bill White, the center’s head of offshore wind, said the model for success is Europe, where fishing ports and former shipyards in Germany and Denmark have been redeveloped into manufacturing sites for the burgeoning offshore wind business.

“In terms of impact, we can only talk about what’s happened in Europe and it’s been a significant buildout,” White said.

The three offshore wind developers are waiting on a June 30 final request for proposals stemming from a 2016 law requiring electric distribution companies in the Bay State to buy 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power over 10 years.