The United States is getting its very own offshore wind farm. Deepwater wind has announced that the Block Island wind project located in Rhode Island has been fully funded and approved.
Deepwater has raised more than $290 million in project financing, which was provided by Societe Generale of Paris, France, and KeyBank National Association of Cleveland, Ohio. With these agreements in place, the company has now secured all debt and equity funding needed to construct and operate its 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, already under construction.
Deepwater Wind is the only United States offshore wind company to reach this critical milestone and the Block Island location will be America’s first offshore wind farm.
Gulf Island Fabrication, began work in January at its facilities in Louisiana, on the farm’s five steel jacket floating foundations. Alstom will supply five Haliade 150 6 MW wind turbines for the project and has already completed the fabrication in Denmark of all 15 blades.
Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffery Grybowski said in a statement;
We are on the cusp of bringing offshore wind from theory to reality in the US, we’re poised to launch a new American cleantech industry, and it all starts here with our work on the Block Island Wind Farm.
Specialty Diving Services is expected to begin additional fabrication work on components of the foundation substructures at Quonset, Rhode Island in the coming weeks with steel in the water being planned for this summer, when all five of the foundations are scheduled for installation. The project looks to be in-service by the fourth quarter of 2016.