Quonset is no lock as a wind farm hub; supply chain to spread throughout region

Listen to state economic officials speak about Quonset Business Park and, inevitably, the offshore wind industry arises. The former Navy station turned industrial park and port could, they say time and time again, serve as a hub for companies racing to build farms off the Northeast coast.
Listen to industry executives and a more complex picture emerges. At a November conference about offshore wind and in interviews, they caution that the supply chain to feed wind farms will likely diffuse throughout the region. And Quonset is already a bustling place with little room left for grand manufacturing plants.
“It’s not going to be one state owning everything,” said Jim Lanard, president of the Offshore Development Coalition, an industry group.
That became clear in October. Cape Wind Associates, the developer behind a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound, announced plans to assemble the farm’s parts in New Bedford, not Quonset.
“I believe that Quonset Point could have been made to work to fill our needs,” said Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers. “But ultimately our decision was based on distance to the site.”
Rhode Island officials called the decision unfortunate but sought to play down the impact for Quonset. Stephen King, the managing director for the Quonset Development Corporation, said companies looking to support the New Bedford operations could spring up elsewhere.
“This is going to be a regional industry as we go forward,” he said on the sidelines of the two-day Northeast Offshore Wind Summit organized by the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, the QDC’s parent, on Nov. 15 and 16.
How much of the industry that lands at Quonset in North Kingstown remains to be seen. Deepwater Wind, the company behind two proposed wind farms off the Rhode Island coast, has options to lease 117 acres at the 3,160-acre park. The company plans to use the three noncontiguous parcels for assembling the supports that hold wind turbines and as a staging area for construction.
The work represents a sliver of the supply chain. Deepwater plans to purchase wind turbines manufactured elsewhere and a company in the Gulf of Mexico region will produce the supports they stand on, Deepwater Wind Chief Development Officer Paul Rich said. Rich and other industry officials say the scale of Deepwater’s first project – eight turbines off the coast of Block Island – is too small to attract manufacturers to open shop here. And even if they wanted to come, land is tight and Quonset’s existing automobile importing operations – one of the busiest in North America – must be protected, King said.
King said 33 parcels are available at Quonset, but just one is larger than 10 acres. For companies looking to build sprawling manufacturing plants or requiring extensive waterfront land, Quonset may not be the place unless existing companies leave.
“There are limited options,” King said.
King said the smaller parcels may prove attractive for back-office operations that support the wind farm industry. Companies that undertake research or otherwise require little manufacturing space may also find Quonset attractive. And larger companies could locate elsewhere in the state, King said.
In the case of Deepwater, Rich said the logistics of the Quonset land may require the company to put tentacles in other parts of the state. The privately held company already keeps its corporate headquarters in Providence. And the equipment Deepwater plans to purchase from far-flung locations may make its way to Quonset in a circuitous fashion.
Rich said some suppliers may prefer to use existing shipping channels and send their products to, say, the Port of Providence. There, they could be floated by barge to Quonset.
“It adds cost and time and all that to it but it can still work,” Rich said.
But questions remain about how Deepwater will unload and load wind turbine parts from barges, regardless of where they come from. Quonset received $22.3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in February to purchase a crane and undertake infrastructure improvements that Gov. Donald L. Carcieri hailed as a “tremendous boost to our ongoing efforts to make Quonset the nation’s hub in renewable energy and offshore wind industries.” Rich and King said the crane being considered by the Quonset Development Corporation would lift about 150 tons. Deepwater, however, expects some of its pieces – the nacelle in each turbine assembly in particular – to weigh as much as 350 tons. Rich said it’s possible that the Quonset crane could work in tandem with similar cranes floated down from the Port of Providence, which received federal stimulus money to buy two cranes. But more than likely, Deepwater will need to lease at least one crane to move the parts. A crane will also be sent to the construction site to assist with the erection of the turbines, Rich said.
King said the QDC is aware its anticipated crane will not be strong enough for all of Deepwater’s needs. But a crane of that scale would be too cumbersome to handle cargo that the port at the park is also chasing, he said. The QDC does plan, however, to use some of the federal stimulus money to build a platform along the water that can support a heavy crane and improve roadways that connect Deepwater’s properties.
Those properties themselves present challenges. Rich called the parcels at Quonset “less than ideal” because they do not lie next to each other and only one sits on the waterfront. One of the parcels is also difficult to build on because of environmental contamination.
However, Rich said the preferred wide-open area of waterfront land is hard to come by in the Northeast. And in Quonset, Deepwater found a supportive landlord.
Rich said that the properties should provide enough space for Deepwater to undertake its Block Island project. When the company moves on to its second proposed project – 100 turbines at least 15 miles off the coast – it will need to carefully manage operations. Rich said he expected the company to order turbine pieces in stages and then play a sort of musical turbine game, as new ones arrive and are assembled and shipped to the site.
“Even if it’s not ideal it’s [still] a wonderful site,” Rich said. •