Deepwater flips Block Island switch

Deepwater Wind has started commercial operations at the historic 30MW Block Island project, the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

The five-turbine project in Rhode Island is delivering power into the New England grid via a 32km subsea cable.

“We’ve made history here in the Ocean State, but our work is far from over,” said Deepwater CEO Jeffrey Grybowski.

“We’re more confident than ever that this is just the start of a new US renewable energy industry that will put thousands of Americans to work and power communities up and down the East Coast for decades to come.”

Only four of the GE Haliade 6MW turbines are operating. The manufacturer is expected to repair the fifth machine, which was damaged after a drill bit was accidently left inside the unit.

More than 300 local workers helped develop, build and commission the project and Deepwater used four Rhode Island port facilities – ProvPort, Quonset Point, Galilee and Block Island – to complete staging, construction and commissioning over the last two years.

National Grid has agreed to buy the output for $0.24/kWh with a 3.5% annual increase for 20 years. The utility also constructed the $107m cable to the mainland.

The project’s investors include Deepwater’s principal owner, an affiliate of the DE Shaw group, Citi, and GE Energy Financial Services, along with lenders Societe Generale, KeyBank, HSBC, SMBC, Cobank and La Caixa.

Image: Historic project features GE Haliade 150 6MW turbines (Deepwater Wind)