400 MW PPA approved for the offshore wind farm in the USA

The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the 20-year PPA between Danish offshore wind company Ørsted and the US-based energy company Eversource with the natural gas and electricity provider National Grid. The PPA is for 400 MW in wind power capacity from the 704 MW Revolution Wind offshore wind project.

The 400MW will be delivered to Rhode Island and the remaining 304 MW to Connecticut. Connecticut separately selected 304 MW from Revolution Wind to power that state.

Project developer DWW Rev 1 LLC is a joint venture of Eversource and Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind.

Once permits are in-hand, local construction work on Revolution Wind is expected to begin as early as 2020, with offshore installation starting in 2022 and the project in operation in 2023. Offshore oceanographic and geophysical survey work began in 2018.

The project entails the installation of up to 50 wind turbines that could range from 8 to 12 MW in a 412km2 area of waters that the company is leasing from the federal government, located off the coast of Rhode Island, in the north-east of the USA between Montauk, New York and Martha´s Vineyard. The project is designed to serve as a regional energy center. When completed Revolution Wind will be the second offshore wind farm in Rhode Island and it will generate enough clean energy to power more than 270,000 average Ocean State homes each year – about a quarter of the total electricity used by Rhode Islanders annually.

Ørsted and Eversource are committed to investing US$ 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.