Deepwater wind farm is still in running to be first

Despite projects moving forward in Massachusetts and Maine, Providence-based Deepwater Wind still has a chance to build the nation’s first offshore wind farm, even as it trudges through what could be the last handful of state and federal permitting approvals.
The target date to have the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm producing energy is 2015, but that could slip to 2016, Deepwater Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski has acknowledged.
If Deepwater doesn’t meet the earlier target date, the neighborly competition with the 130-turbine Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound could end up with the Massachusetts wind farm flipping the switch on the turbines sooner.
“The target date to have the project commissioned is 2016,” said Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers. “We expect to complete the financing in the third quarter of this year. Construction could begin late this year or early next year.”
All of Cape Wind’s state and local permits were completed in 2009, federal permits wrapped up in 2010 and power-purchase agreements with National Grid and NSTAR approved in 2012. In December, Cape Wind signed a contract to buy turbines from Siemens, a leading offshore wind-turbine manufacturer in the global market.
“It’s a good-natured contest,” said Rodgers. “I think at this stage of the industry, every milestone Deepwater achieves is good for Cape Wind and every milestone we achieve is good for Deepwater. We’d rather be first – it’s human nature – but the important thing is that we both get going and get them built.”
Deepwater Wind has had financing in place, with lead investor D.E. Shaw a patient and solid foundation for the project, Grybowski has said. So far, Deepwater Wind has spent more than $40 million on the Block Island project.
“We want to put Rhode Island in a leadership position in offshore wind,” Grybowski said in a presentation to the Coastal Resources Management Council during a public hearing at University of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay campus on Feb. 4, attended by about 150 people, with 60 of them signed up to offer comments. The CRMC is the main regulatory agency for the wind farm.
A 53-page report on the Block Island project by the staff of CRMC includes a few stipulations, such as a preferred drilling method for installation of the power cable on Scarborough Beach. Overall, the “CRMC staff has no objections to the project, provided the council adopts the recommended stipulations,” according to the report. A second CRMC hearing on the Block Island Wind Farm is scheduled for Feb. 24 on Block Island.
While Deepwater Wind and Cape Wind move closer to turbines in the water, a Maine project proposing two floating turbines, Maine Aqua Ventus, is making progress in the earlier stages of development, with the Maine Public Utility Commission’s approval in January of a term sheet for a 20-year power-purchase agreement.
The project is a consortium of Emera, a Halifax, Nova Scotia-based energy company; Cianbro Corp., a Maine contractor; and Maine Prime Technologies, a spinoff company representing the University of Maine.
The floating turbines are to be located at a state offshore test site in Monhegan, said University of Maine spokesman Jake Ward. Monhegan is an island about 10 miles off the Maine coast.
The project depends on getting $46 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, said Dina Bartolacci Seely, a spokeswoman for Emera. The deadline to apply for the DOE funding is mid-February.
The lineup of offshore wind projects is lengthening with auctions by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for leases for offshore sites.
Deepwater Wind won the first auction in July 2013 for two sites off the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coasts, where it is planning the 200-turbine Deepwater Wind Energy Center. In September 2013, Virginia Electric and Power Co. won the auction for an offshore Virginia site. BOEM has announced that it will hold an auction for sites off the coast of Maryland, with a date to be announced. An auction for federal leases offshore from New Jersey is anticipated and Deepwater Wind has said it would be interested in bidding in that auction.
CRMC last week said it received 78 written comments on the Block Island project related to cost, environmental impact and aesthetics.
Michael Elliott, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager for the Block Island Wind Farm, said at the public hearing that the Corps would hold a separate hearing only if it decided more details are needed.
The Block Island project requires approval from the Army Corps of Engineers. While that’s not yet decided, Elliott said, “I don’t see a deal-breaker.” •

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