Visiting Eversource
Thomas Brostrøm is President of Ørsted North America, Eversource Offshore Wind Partner.
Mike Auseré is Vice President, Business Development for Eversource.
PUF: Thomas, what is your role at Ørsted?
Thomas Brostrøm: My role has changed a lot from four years ago, when it was only me. That was the first time we stepped out of our footprint markets, which was Northwest Europe, Denmark, Scandinavia, Germany, and the U.K. That was the when we started to go global.
We came over here late '14, early '15. We saw the market fundamentals for offshore wind, which are very good. Great wind speeds that are constant, picking up in the afternoon and the evenings when you need it the most, over shallow water depths.
There are not many alternatives in the Northeast. At the same time, there was a big push politically and from the end users to get cleaner and go green.
We set up shop here in '15. We'll come back to that, but I spent the first year advocating for offshore wind. I spent time in Massachusetts on Beacon Hill educating folks on the industry and how far it's come. In July of 2016 a law passed in Massachusetts mandating 1.6 gigawatts of offshore wind. That was the start.