Impacts of Offshore Wind in New England
Sierra Club
Project completed.
Currently, the New England states are collectively targeting 9 GW of offshore wind by 2030. On behalf of Sierra Club, Synapse analyzed the impacts that offshore wind would have on electricity bills, the climate, and public health in the region. We found that offshore wind would:
- Reduce New England electricity customers’ bills by approximately $2.79/month to $4.61/month, depending on future gas prices.
- Save New England an average of $630 million annually on electricity costs, with net savings in some years surpassing $1.3 billion under a mid-case natural gas price.
- Retain approximately $1.57 billion in New England that would have otherwise flowed out to purchase gas fuel for generating electricity.
- Cut 42% of annual CO2 emissions from the New England power sector (14 million short tons of CO2).
- Provide $362 million in annual public health benefits by avoiding 3,700 short tons of NOX emissions, 824 tons of SO2 emissions, and 641 tons of PM2.5 emissions annually.