THE ITALIAN COMPANY seeking to build an offshore wind cable manufacturing plant at Brayton Point in Somerset has a big decision to make.
Prysmian Group has nearly all of the permits it needs for a factory that a year ago was being called a $300 million project. It recently fended off a challenge to its state air quality permit from a group of 12 Somerset residents, but now those same residents are indicating they will launch a court challenge to the permit. The big question facing Prysmian is whether to keep the project on hold while the court fight plays out or begin moving it forward.
A spokesman for Prysmian declined to say what exactly the company will do. “The project is proceeding as planned and Prysmian continues to pursue all procedural and legal steps,” the spokesman said.
The uncertainty about the Prysmian plant reflects the uncertainty surrounding the offshore wind industry.in general. The half-built Vineyard Wind 1, one of the nation’s first industrial-scale wind farms, is struggling to get back on track after a turbine blade broke and sent foam and fiberglass washing up on Nantucket beaches. Massachusetts and Rhode Island appear to be moving ahead with a major offshore wind procurement but their partner Connecticut, worried about the price of the power, is sitting on the sidelines. And Donald Trump is vowing to shut the entire industry down if he is elected president next month.
Jamison Souza, the chair of the Somerset Select Board, said he hopes Prysmian moves forward with the project this year. He said the Prysmian plant will provide badly needed tax revenue for the town, which has struggled since a coal-fired power plant at Brayton Point shut down in 2017 and was torn down in 2019.
“These delays and these appeals have a significant impact on the taxpayer,” he said.
Delays have become the norm at Brayton Point. After the coal-fired power plant was torn down, Brayton Point’s owner marketed the property to the offshore wind industry. But Trump, when he was in office, put the industry and Vineyard Wind 1 on hold, prompting the owner of Brayton Point to lease a portion of the empty property to a scrap metal export business that alienated a neighboring community by blanketing it with dust and noise. The neighbors banded together against the scrap metal business and eventually shut it down in court.
Prysmian then stepped forward with plans to build a cable manufacturing facility at Brayton Point to serve the offshore wind industry on the East Coast. The state offered $25 million for the construction of a pier at Brayton Point and the town provided a $20 million tax break. President Biden even came to Brayton Point to trumpet the potential of offshore wind to transform America.
Many in Somerset rallied around the project, but some of the same neighbors who opposed the scrap metal business became critics of Prysmian and its plans. The neighbors won a number of concessions from Prysmian as the plant moved through the local regulatory process, including a promise to retrofit its cable-laying ships to operate on electricity when in port rather than using their diesel engines for power.
In April, 12 local residents asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to review its approval of an air permit for the project. On September 26, the DEP commissioner issued a final approval for the permit and gave the opponents 30 days to decide whether to challenge the decision in court. That 30-day period is up this week, and the residents are signaling they will file a court challenge.
Souza said Brayton Point is very close to becoming a renewable energy hub for the East Coast. He said Prysmian wants to build its plant there, a wind farm that participated in the recent Massachusetts-Rhode Island-Connecticut procurement wants to bring its power ashore there, and several other offshore wind businesses are eyeing Brayton Point as a possible home as well.
Still, it’s an uncertain time. Souza worries the presidential election could throw a wrench in the plans for Brayton Point again.“There’s been a lot of uncertainty. Some of that is due to the national election,” he said. “Our region is truly impacted by the national election.”
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