Vineyard Wind has announced that it has entered into a Host Community Agreement with the Town of Barnstable.
The agreement, was approved earlier by the town council at their meeting last week, allows Vineyard Wind to run transmission cables underground to a substation at Independence Park.
The transmissions lines will come ashore at Covell’s Beach in Barnstable and will require several seasons of construction. Any work will take place during the offseason.
The deal represents another milestone for the United States’ first large-scale offshore wind farm as it advances through the permitting process to the onset of construction in 2019 and operations by 2021.
The agreement requires Vineyard Wind to make annual payments to the town of at least $1.5 million each year in combined property taxes and Host Community Payments. The pact also guarantees a total Host Community Payment of $16 million, plus an additional $60,000 for each year the project is in operation beyond 25 years.
The HCA also provides opportunity for detailed review of Vineyard Wind’s specifications for a new substation by the Town, Transformers and other electrical equipment at the substation will be underlain by full volume, impervious containment systems. Transmission cables, which will not contain any fluids, will be sited under public roads or sidewalks connecting to an existing substation in an industrial park and requiring no changes to the existing electrical transmission system.
The agreement with Barnstable follows the award and execution of long-term contracts between Vineyard Wind and Massachusetts’ electric distribution companies to construct an 800-megawatt wind farm in federal waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.
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