USA Just Got Its First Offshore Wind Farm

“The Block Island Wind Farm is now fully constructed,” Jeff Grybowski, Deepwater Wind’s CEO, informed via social media this evening. 

The installation of wind turbines at the first American offshore wind farm was completed today with the last blade attached to the fifth GE Renewable Energy Haliade 150-6MW turbine.

Fred. Olsen Windcarrier’s Brave Tern installed the first wind turbine at the site at the beginning of this month, after completing its first transatlantic journey, which began in mid-July by picking up five Haliade 150-6MW nacelles at Saint Nazaire, France.

The 30MW Block Island Wind Farm is scheduled to be fully commissioned by the end of the year.

While offshore wind projects are at an advanced stage in Europe, which installed its first offshore wind farm in 1991 and has 84 offshore wind farms in 11 countries (EWEA’s 2015 statistics), Block Island Wind Farm represents first project of its kind in the US waters. When Deepwater Wind launched the construction phase of the offshore wind project in April 2015, Emily Norton, Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the Sierra Club, said: “The Block Island Wind Farm is our Apollo 11 moment.”