U.S. Interior Approves 704 Megawatt Wind Project Off Rhode Island

The U.S. Department of the Interior on Aug. 22 announced its approval of the Revolution Wind project, a 704-megawatt wind farm to be built off the coast of Rhode Island. The project would have the ability to provide electricity for around a quarter of a million homes.

The Revolution Wind Project is the department’s fourth approval of a commercial scale offshore wind energy project. The largest of the four projects, the Ocean Wind 1 project offshore New Jersey has an estimated capacity of 1,100 MW and has the ability to power up to 380,000 homes. The Vineyard Wind project offshore Massachusetts has an estimated capacity of 800 MW, while the South Fork Wind project offshore Rhode Island and New York has a capacity of 130 MW.

The Biden administration has set a goal of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 15 GW of floating offshore wind energy by 2035. The most recent approval of a major offshore wind project is expected to strengthen America’s energy security, lower energy costs, increase the reliability of the grid and reduce climate pollution. The U.S. government continues to invest into the offshore wind industry, despite the industry facing a number of challenges including opposition over impacts to the environment and coastal economies, escalating costs and other supply chain difficulties.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management considered the alternatives in the final environmental impact statement including public comments received on the draft environmental review, before approving the Revolution Wind’s construction and operations plan. The assessment led to installing fewer wind turbines than originally proposed by the developer to lower impacts to visual resources, benthic habitat, and other ocean users.

There are a wide range of measures in place to avoid and reduce the potential impacts that may come about due to the construction and operation of the project.  Some of the measures include Revolution Wind committing to establish fishery mitigation funds to compensate losses incurred by recreational and commercial fisheries and committing to ensure measures such as vessel speed are adhered to, in order to reduce the potential negative impacts to protected species.

Revolution Wind is a joint venture of Danish wind developer Ørsted and Eversource, a New England utility.