Block Island Wind Farm
Aerial view
Map
Country
  • United States
LocationNew Shoreham, Rhode Island
Coordinates41°06′53″N 71°31′16″W / 41.1147°N 71.5211°W / 41.1147; -71.5211
StatusOperational
Construction began2015
Commission date12 December 2016[1]
Construction cost$290 million
Owner(s)
Wind farm
Type
Distance from shore3.8 mi (6.1 km)
Hub height100 m[2]
Rotor diameter
  • 150 m (490 ft)
Rated wind speed3–25 m/s[3]
Power generation
Units operational5 × 6 MW
Make and modelGE Renewable Energy Haliade 150-6MW (5)
Nameplate capacity
  • 30 MW
Capacity factor47.6% (projected)[4]
Annual net output125 GW·h
External links
Websiteus.orsted.com/renewable-energy-solutions/offshore-wind/block-island-wind-farm
CommonsRelated media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

Block Island Wind Farm is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States,[5] located 3.8 mi (6.1 km) from Block Island, Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The five-turbine, 30 MW project was developed by Deepwater Wind, now known as Ørsted US Offshore Wind.

Construction began in 2015, and in late summer 2016, five Alstom Haliade 150-6MW turbines were erected. Operations were launched in December 2016.[4] It is the largest project using wind power in Rhode Island.

Design and capacity

Location of Block Island

Block Island Wind Farm was originally a project of Deepwater Wind[6] to be located about 3.3 nmi (6.1 km; 3.8 mi) southeast of Block Island,[7] which was expected to produce more than 125,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually. Power is transmitted from the turbines to the electric grid along a 21 mi (34 km) transmission submarine power cable buried under the ocean floor, making landfall north of Scarborough Beach in Narragansett, Rhode Island. The structures were designed by Jeff Glab Alstom Wind, standing 600 ft high (180 m) and can withstand a Category 3 storm.[8][9][10] The system connects New Shoreham, Rhode Island to the electrical power grid for the first time, allowing it to transition from using diesel generators.[11] Gulf Island Fabrication was interested in building the foundations.[12]

Permits and funding

The Block Island Wind Farm was conceived as a larger project extending into neighboring Massachusetts[13] to build a $1.5-billion, 385-megawatt wind farm in federal waters. The 100-turbine project could provide 1.3 terawatt-hours (TW·h) of electricity per year – 15 percent of all electricity used in the state.[14] In 2009, the State of Rhode Island designated Deepwater Wind to begin with pilot projects.[15][16] In the same year, Deepwater signed an agreement with National Grid to sell the power from the wind farm off Block Island, at an initial price of 24.4¢/kWh,[17] with a guaranteed[18] 3.5% annual increase.[19]

The permitting process for the project has been highly controversial, with the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (RIPUC) initially rejecting the agreement price with National Grid as being excessive to Rhode Island's electricity ratepayers.[20] However, after the Rhode Island General Assembly and Governor Carcieri changed the state law concerning the "commercial reasonability" of contract pricing, the RIPUC voted to approve the key contract.[21] After continuing controversy and appeals, the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled in July 2011 to uphold the RIPUC decision. Opponents of the project raised an issue about the contract pricing with the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in August 2012, but in October of the same year, FERC issued a decision that they would not act on the complaint.[22] A total of nine reviews and permits from state federal agencies were acquired, the last in early May 2015.[23] On May 11, 2015, a new complaint was filed with FERC, alleging that the power purchase agreement with National Grid violates the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 and that the RIPUC violated the Federal Power Act and the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. However, Deepwater Wind maintained that there was no support for any of these claims and that FERC should promptly deny the new complaint in its entirety.[22]

While the wind turbines have been built in state waters southeast of Block Island, the transmission cable crosses federal waters in the Atlantic. A portion of the power is supplied directly to Block Island, 13 mi (21 km) off-shore from the Rhode Island mainland and has some of the highest power rates in the country due to its local generation by small diesel-powered generators.[24][25][26]

Deepwater Wind announced in March 2015 that it had received funding in the amount of $290 million from mandated lead arrangers Société Générale of Paris, France and KeyBank National Association of Cleveland, Ohio.[27] The farm design was verified in 2017.[28]

Construction

In late 2014, Gulf Island Fabrication, Inc.[29] began steelwork construction at its Houma, Louisiana shipyard. The building phase focused on the turbines' foundations (for platforms) to be pile-anchored to the ocean floor. On June 26, 2015, the first of the five foundations for the project began its move from Louisiana via barge.[30] The turbines were expected to be delivered later in 2015 and erected in place in 2016.[31][needs update] Foundation assembly started in ProvPort in March 2016, with commissioning estimated to be done late 2016.[32] GZA GeoEnvironmental provided the geotechnical design and consulting for the staging facility at the Port of Providence.[33]

The structures, designed by Alstom Wind, stand 600 ft (180 m) high and can withstand a Category 3 storm.[8][9][10][needs copy edit] The foundations were designed by Louisiana-based Keystone Engineering Inc. to withstand a 1000-year storm.[34] The foundations’ robust strength is the product of meticulous design processes and thorough engineering analysis performed by Keystone.[34][promotion?] While the four-pile jacket foundation is common for offshore oil and gas platforms, Block Island's jackets are engineered to handle additional loading and vibration from the spinning turbines.[35] Keystone's engineering team ran thousands of test simulations, repeating each calculation multiple times to ensure the design would hold up under various weather conditions and load scenarios. Altogether, nearly 10 million tests were completed.[35]

On March 9, 2015, French company Alstom received final notification to begin fabrication of five Alstom Haliade 150 6 MW offshore wind turbines. GE Wind Energy acquired Alstom Wind and Haliade production in November 2015.[36] As of July 2016, the site was grid-connected,[37][38] and towers and LM Wind Power blades[39] were in the port of Providence. The Norwegian installation jack-up vessel[40] was on its way to France to pick up the 400 tonne generators,[41] as it was not able to pick them up from an easier US port due to the Jones Act.[42] A test version of the direct-drive[43] turbine is installed at Østerild Wind Turbine Test Field.[44][needs update]

Close-up of GE–Alstom 150-6MW at Østerild, 2017

The first turbine was erected in August 2016.[45][46][47] On August 18, 2016, Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski announced Block Island Wind Farm was fully constructed.[48][49] The wind farm commenced commercial operation in December 2016.[50]

Operation

During a major winter storm in March 2017, the turbines functioned as designed, automatically cutting out when the wind speed reached 55 mph (25 m/s).[3] After the wind speed had topped out at about 69 mph (31 m/s), they resumed production again once the speed went below the cut-off threshold.[51]

The project also provided jobs for the state of Rhode Island, employing welders, workers during assembly of the wind turbines, and divers.[52]

The Block Island Wind Farm has experienced multiple issues, causing it to fail to perform on some occasions. Problems include turbine stress fatigue on four of the five turbines and erosion exposing the underwater cables that took the power to the mainland. The combination of the issues resulted in extensive shutdowns in the summer of 2021 for repairs and safety inspections. The turbines were offline for months.[53][54][clarification needed]

See also

References

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  2. ^ "HALIADE* 150-6MW OFFSHORE WIND TURBINE". gerenewableenergy.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-28. Retrieved 2017-03-02.
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  11. ^ "The Day - Wind farm controversy buffets tiny Block Island - News from southeastern Connecticut". The Day. Archived from the original on 2015-10-10. Retrieved 2015-05-13.
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  21. ^ Chris Barrett (11 August 2010). "PUC Approves Deepwater Wind-National Grid Power Deal, But Appeals Expected". Providence Business News. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
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  41. ^ Nilsen, Jannicke (11 July 2016). "Installerer USAs første havvindpark: Det norske fartøyet vil ruve 40 meter høyere enn Frihetsgudinnen" (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
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  48. ^ "Jeff Grybowski (@JGrybowski) - Twitter". Archived from the original on 2022-10-17. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
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  54. ^ "Block Island Offshore Wind Farm Offline Two Months Due to Maintenance and Safety Concerns". Providence Journal. August 14, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2023.

External links

Wind power in the United States
Categories