Where the Wind Blows

Newsday excerpt - Michael Dobie

Deepwater Wind, the offshore wind company responsible for the five 550-foot turbines and their 75-meter blades (maximum speed: 200 mph) off the shores of Block Island, now has a federal lease to 256 square miles of ocean just 20 miles to the southeast, along with a contract from the Long Island Power Authority to deliver 90 megawatts of offshore wind power to the East End of Long Island. The company expects to begin construction in 2021 and be fully operational by the end of 2022, according to vice president of development Clint Plummer.

The turbines off Block Island produce 6 megawatts each; with technology advances, Plummer said turbines in the new wind farm will generate 6 to 9.5 megawatts each. He said the parcel could produce as much as 2,000 megawatts. The company plans to develop it in phases, depending on future power contracts with New York and states in New England.

Plummer said Deepwater Wind is not affected by Norwegian giant Statoil Oil winning a lease for an 80,000-acre wind farm 11 miles off Jones Beach, or by the state recommending to the feds more than 1 million acres for wind power arrays in two ocean parcels farther south and east from Statoil’s plot.

“We think in our industry, a rising tide lifts all boats,” Plummer said, referring to the growing interest in wind power on the state and national levels.

More capacity and better reliability, he said, make it easier to achieve Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s goal of delivering 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind power to the state by 2030.