Deepwater work begins at Quonset facility, 2016 target set for finish

AT AN EVENT MONDAY IN THE QUONSET BUSINESS PARK, Deepwater Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski, left, and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo marked the beginning of construction activity for the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2016. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
AT AN EVENT MONDAY IN THE QUONSET BUSINESS PARK, Deepwater Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski, left, and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo marked the beginning of construction activity for the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2016. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

(Updated 2:40 p.m.) NORTH KINGSTOWN – Initial construction activities for the Block Island Wind Farm have begun, the company launching the five-turbine farm announced Monday.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo on Monday toured the facilities of Specialty Diving Services, a company based at Quonset Point whose welders will create some of the wind farm’s foundation components. The company is a subcontractor to Gulf Island Fabrication Inc., which will build the steel jacket foundations for the project at its production facility in Houma, La.
The Block Island Wind Farm, a project of Deepwater Wind LLC, is expected to be the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., according to the company’s spokeswoman. The schedule for construction will include initial erection of the turbine supports by summer, with operation by fall 2016.
Deepwater Wind will place five turbines about three miles southeast of Block Island, in federal waters. The 30-megawatt project is expected to generate more than 125,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually, enough to provide 90 percent of Block Island’s demand and about 1 percent of the state’s demand for electrical power.
The project will create more than 300 construction jobs in Rhode Island, according to Deepwater. According to a timeline, by late summer 2015, offshore work will begin. The foundations are expected to arrive at that time from Gulf Island Fabrication. The turbine towers are expected to arrive by the fall, and will be assembled in Rhode Island. Utility work for the project will begin this year, as well, including cable installation on Block Island, and the mainland. By summer of 2016, the turbine components will arrive at the wind farm location, and will be installed over four weeks. Testing is expected to begin in the fall of 2016.
National Grid, which is the dominant electrical utility in Rhode Island, has a contract to purchase energy produced by the wind farm for 20 years.
The project is privately financed. In early March, Deepwater Wind announced it had secured more than $290 million in debt and equity financing for the project. The French company Societe Generale Group and KeyBank N.A. of Cleveland have agreed to finance the wind farm.

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  1. The voters of RI need to read this. National Grid is mandated by the state to purchase electricity at above market rates for 20 years. Rhode Island will have the distinction of having the most expensive electricity from any other wind farm in the United States!
    Power generated by the wind farm will rise by 3.5 percent for each of the twenty years of the agreement.
    How are we, the rate-payers and the businesses being forced into such a bad deal? This will cost Rhode Island many Jobs!
    Businesses will lay-off, or at the very least not hire due to the millions of extra money they need to pay for electricity.
    Rhode Island is already the nations worst climate for business and this project will make it much worse.