OFFSHORE WIND
Reprinted from
Renews.Biz
29 May 2019 08:54
Thanks to Geoharvey.com
Orsted and US utility Eversource have secured a power purchase agreement for their 400MW Revolution wind farm off Rhode Island.
The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission rubber-stamped the PPA with National Grid on Tuesday.
A further 300MW from the lease zone is to be delivered ashore to neighbouring Connecticut.
Orsted North America US offshore wind president Thomas Brostrom said: “We’re grateful for the RI PUC’s approval of this important project.
“We’re ready to get to work to deliver dramatically more offshore wind energy, jobs and energy savings to Rhode Island.”
Eversource executive vice president for enterprise energy strategy and business development Lee Olivier said: “Rhode Island is making tremendous strides in achieving the state’s ambitious clean energy goals.
“With Revolution Wind set to deliver a quarter of the state’s total electric load, offshore wind is now poised to become a major component of the state’s energy mix.”
The developers said that once permits are in-hand local construction work could start next year, with offshore installation kicking off in 2022 and project operations in 2023.
They added that $40m will be invested in Rhode Island for local port improvements, with ProvPort expected to be a major construction hub for the wind farm and Quonset the operations centre.
The project will create 800 construction jobs and 50 permanent O&M positions, the developers said.
