(Photo: Offshore wind power. Credit: Ørsted)Rhode Island regulators today approved a 20-year power-purchase agreement (PPA) with DWW Rev I, LLC — a joint venture of Ørsted US Offshore Wind and Eversource — for the offshore wind energy that the Revolution Wind project will deliver to the state.
The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved Ørsted and Eversource’s long-term power contract with National Grid for 400 megawatts of clean energy from Revolution Wind.
Revolution Wind, Rhode Island’s second offshore wind farm, will generate enough clean energy to power about a quarter of the total electricity used by Rhode Islanders annually. The project will save Rhode Island electricity customers millions of dollars in energy costs over the life of the project.
Once permits are in-hand, local construction work on Revolution Wind will begin as early as 2020, with offshore installation starting in 2022 and the project in operations in 2023. Offshore oceanographic and geophysical survey work began in 2018.
Ørsted and Eversource are committed to investing $40 million in Rhode Island for local port improvements. The companies expect to make ProvPort a major construction hub for Revolution Wind, and are targeting Quonset for the long-term operations center. The project will create 800 construction jobs and 50 permanent operations and maintenance jobs.
The State of Rhode Island selected Revolution Wind in May 2018 through a competitive and collaborative bid review process with Massachusetts.
Revolution Wind, located in federal waters roughly halfway between Montauk, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., is designed to serve as regional energy center. Connecticut separately selected 300MW from Revolution Wind to power that state.
Ørsted operates America’s first offshore wind farm — the 30MW Block Island Wind Farm, developed by Deepwater Wind — in Rhode Island. The five-turbine offshore wind farm has been in operations since 2016.
