Update: National Grid to Buy Power from Offshore Wind Farm

National Grid, a massive northeastern U.S. transmission and distribution utility, has agreed to buy power from an offshore wind farm several miles off the coast of Rhode Island. The utility also has begun negotiating an agreement to buy power from the proposed 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore farm in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod. 

One of these two projects could become the first offshore wind farm in the U.S.

The utility's 20-year agreement with Deepwater Wind is to buy 28MW of power produced by as many as eight turbines. Deepwater's plan is to construct a wind farm three miles off the coast of Block Island, which would be the project's first phase, and to begin providing power in 2013.

The project fits neatly into Rhode Island's goal of providing 20% of the state's electricity from renewable resources by 2015. The state wants the majority of its renewable energy to come from offshore wind rather than solar or land-based wind energy production.

National Grid and Cape Wind have begun negotiations and no preliminary numbers appear to have been announced. The news comes at a good time for Cape Wind's owners. The project has been opposed by both Indian tribes who say the proposed location for the large offshore farm is a significant cultural resource for them, and some Cape Cod residents have mounted a long and well-funded campaign to stop the project because they say it will spoil their view. National Grid's interest may give the project a little more clout.

Deepwater has meteorological equipment in the Block Island area as part of a large-scale wind resources study. The company is hoping the permitting process will be simpler because the wind farm would be built in state-owned waters.

The Deepwater project also includes proposals to provide a transmission line to Block Island, a popular summer tourist destination which now relies primarily on diesel fuel for power. Unused power would be sent to the state's primary electric grid.

And, for the record, these deals aren't a shot in the dark for National Grid which serves more than six million electric and natural gas customers in New York, New Hampshire, Maine and Rhode Island. The utility has expressed an interest in wind power for some time now. It released a comprehensive study of wind power and related transmission issues in 2006.

Deepwater also plans a utility-scale project further out to sea in federal waters. That project would generate about 385MW and would require another, separate power purchase agreement to buy electricity from that operation.

Both Deepwater projects would produce 1.3 million MW hours per year which would provide the state with 15% of its electricity needs. The total cost would be roughly $1.5 billion.

   Cape Cod Times article