The US Department of the Interior (DOI) today announced its approval of Rhode Island and Connecticut’s Revolution Wind offshore wind farm.
This is the DOI’s fourth approval of a US commercial-scale, offshore wind farm. Revolution Wind joins Vineyard Wind off Massachusetts, South Fork Wind off Rhode Island and New York, and Ocean Wind 1 off New Jersey.
Now that it’s received its record of decision, Revolution Wind is now on track to begin onshore construction activities in the coming weeks, and offshore construction will ramp up in 2024. It’s expected to come online in 2025.
Energy provider Eversource and Danish wind giant Ørsted’s Revolution Wind is Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm. It will be sited around 15 miles south of the Rhode Island coast, 32 miles southeast of the Connecticut coast, and 12 miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.
The 704-megawatt (MW) project will deliver 400 MW of clean energy to Rhode Island and 304 MW to Connecticut, powering more than 350,000 households across the two states. It’s expected to create around 1,200 local jobs during the construction phase.
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said, “President Biden has set an ambitious goal of achieving 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 – and I am more confident than ever that we will meet it. Together with industry, labor, and partners from coast to coast, we are building an entirely new industry off the east and west and Gulf coasts.”
And Liz Burdock, founder and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, said:
The US offshore wind industry is on the move; the steady stream of offshore wind project environmental reviews is critical to the success of supply chain investments, and today’s announcement bolsters investments in component production at ProvPort in Rhode Island, cable manufacturing in South Carolina, steel fabrication in western New York, and shipbuilding in Texas and Louisiana.
