Three major offshore wind projects are in various stages of complicated permitting processes in southern New England waters.
Revolution Wind is a joint effort between Orsted, a Danish wind-energy firm that purchased Block Island Wind Farm developer Deepwater Wind LLC in 2018, and Eversource Energy of Boston. The 400-megawatt project will include up to 50 turbines in federal waters about 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast.
Developers plan to file a construction and operations plan with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this spring, said company spokeswoman Meaghan Wims.
Barring hiccups in the permitting process, the project is expected to be operational in 2023.
The project will create 800 construction jobs and 50 permanent operations and maintenance jobs, Wims said. It’s expected that ProvPort will be a major hub during fabrication of the turbines and Quonset Point in North Kingstown will be used as a long-term operations center.
South Fork Wind Farm, another collaboration between Orsted and Eversource, is planned for the same federal lease area as Revolution Wind, Wims said. Its 15 turbines will generate 130 megawatts for Long Island in New York. The farm is in the process of obtaining federal permits, and developers expect the New York State Department of Public Service review process to finalize the transmission route this year, according to Wims.
The Vineyard Wind project is also waiting on word from federal permitting authorities. The 800-megawatt project, with a price tag of $2.8 billion, is proposed by Vineyard Wind LLC of New Bedford.
In August, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management delayed a ruling on the project’s application to build up to 84 turbines in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard.
The company announced in February that after hearing from the U.S. Department of the Interior that the project’s environmental impact statement will be published later than anticipated, it no longer expects the wind farm to be operational by 2022.
No construction date has been set.
In February 2019, the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council approved Vineyard Wind’s consistency certification application. The project is designed to generate electricity for Massachusetts, but Vineyard Wind has an agreement with the Rhode Island Fisheries Advisory Board to hold $4.2 million in escrow as a compensation fund for potential impacts to Rhode Island vessels and fisheries.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.
