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Deepwater wind overview
Deepwater Wind is an off-shore wind energy development group that built the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, United States.
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Ge equipped deepwater wind s block island america s first offshore wind farm
Overview
Incorporated as Deepwater Wind, LLC of Providence, Rhode Island, the company's major investors include First Wind, a developer of land-based wind projects in the United States; D.E. Shaw & Co., a capital investment firm with energy sector experience; and Ospraie Management, an asset management firm interested in alternative energy markets. Long Island Power Authority recommended a 90 MW Deepwater offshore wind farm 30 miles east of Montauk, New York for approval in July 2016.
Block Island Wind Farm
The concept was set forth in a plan offered by then Rhode Island Governor Donald L. Carcieri (Republican) in 2006. The aim of the Carcieri plan was to develop large-scale offshore wind projects in the south-eastern New England region of the United States, and in the State of Rhode Island, in a bid to diversify Rhode Island's power supply with renewable energy sources. In June 2007, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources determined ten sites in the region of ocean within the boundaries of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
On September 25, 2008, Governor Carcieri announced that Deepwater Wind was chosen as the successful developer to construct both a test site and the finalized plan for the wind power project - the Block Island Wind Farm - off New Shoreham. The ocean facility is planned to provide 1.3 million megawatt hours per year of renewable energy at its completion — 15 percent of all electricity used in the state.
In 2009, Deepwater signed an agreement with National Grid to sell the power from the $200-million USD, 30-MW wind farm off Block Island, at an initial price of 24.4 ¢ USD/kW·h.
Block Island Wind Farm was commissioned in December 2016.
Deepwater One South Fork
The company has proposed a 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm to be located 30 miles east of Montauk, New York in the same leased waters as the Block Island project (Deepwater leased 256 square miles the area in 2013). It would be the largest offshore windfarm in the United States. Approval of the proposal by the Long Island Power Authority was delayed in July 2016 at the request of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. Thomas Falcone, CEO of LIPA, said they hope to complete the contract in first quarter 2017 with construction beginning in 2019 and that it would be online in 2022. The target of the power to be generated is to power structures in East Hampton (town), New York and Southampton, New York with East Hampton vowing to have 100 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources.
Deepwater's leased area has a potential of supporting 200 turbines.