Local MA Chambers Hear Potential For Offshore Wind Development

Early last year, the New Bedford Economic Development Council established a special wind energy center to boost efforts to develop the offshore wind industry in this southeastern Massachusetts town. Last weekend, the Mayor of New Bedford told a roomful of local chamber of commerce executives that wind energy will transform his city’s economy.

Speaking to the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives, Mayor Jonathan Mitchell said that the state is building a $100 million facility at the New Bedford port to support the construction, assembly and deployment of offshore wind projects and said that nearly a quarter of the nation’s wind energy resources sit just a few miles from this historic whaling community.

Mayor Mitchell thanked the New Bedford Chamber of Commerce, a partner in the wind energy center, and urged the other chamber executives from Massachusetts to fully explore renewable energy resources for their own communities. CICE was one of the sponsors of the MACCE meeting and hosted a clean energy table to share information about clean energy opportunities for chambers.

Mayor Mitchell’s state of the city address from 2013 can be found on the New Bedford Chamber of Commerce website here.