The companies vying to win a state contract to construct and operate a huge offshore wind farm are not the ones that typically bid on Rhode Island state contracts.

They are Allco Renewable Energy Group Limited LLC, New York, N.Y.; Bluewater Wind LLC, Providence; Deep Water Wind Rhode Island LLC, Hoboken, N.J.; DKRW Wind LLC, Houston; Fishermen's Energy of Rhode Island, Bristol; Great Eastern Wind LLC, Providence; and WindPowerpro.us, Woodbridge, N.J.

The Journal will examine each of them in the coming weeks. Today's installment is about Fishermen's Energy of Rhode Island.

But many are so new that they don't even show up in Internet searches.

Few have local ties, and some are located as far away as Ireland and Australia. None has experience building offshore wind farms in the United States. But there's a simple reason for that: there aren't any such projects operating in U.S. waters.

The bids, submitted in May, were submitted in response to a request for proposals issued in April by Governor Carcieri. The governor has proposed that a private company construct, operate and finance an offshore wind farm that would produce enough power to supply 15 percent of the state's electricity. Cost estimates have run as high as $1.9 billion for the project. The seven companies responded.

Earlier this month, Carcieri selected five people, including four state officials, to evaluate the proposals.

The governor's office said the criteria used to choose the winning proposal will be the total cost to Rhode Island ratepayers, the qualification and experience of the bidder in constructing wind projects and the number of jobs and the amount of tax dollars to be created.

The team is expected to complete its work by the end of the summer.

Once the winning bidder is chosen, the bidder would then seek regulatory permits and conduct environmental and siting studies.

The governor's office said the state would "use its best efforts" to expedite the permitting process and assure a long-term contract for energy produced by the facility.

The evaluation team consists of:

•David Farmer, dean of the graduate school of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island

•Andrew Dzykewicz, commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources

•Thomas F. Ahern, administrator of the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers

•Saul Kaplan, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation

•Christopher Long, policy analyst in the governor's office.