Leases could be awarded as early as 2012, said Salazar, although any construction is still at least three years away. He called the news "another major milestone in the development of offshore wind power in America." No such installation has been built yet.

Several states already have done what Rhode Island is now doing in making state waters available to private developers, including Texas, which recently put out a land-lease tender so developers could secure sites off the coast, and New Jersey, which recently released a tender that received a few bids for offshore projects. But in a handful of cases around the country, offshore wind farms are being second-guessed or cancelled entirely because of concern that they won't be profitable, Kaplan said. "In most cases, it comes down to the fact that offshore wind energy is more expensive than land-based projects," he said. ...Several states already have done what Rhode Island is now doing in making state waters available to private developers, including Texas, which recently put out a land-lease tender so developers could secure sites off the coast, and New Jersey, which recently released a tender that received a few bids for offshore projects. But in a handful of cases around the country, offshore wind farms are being second-guessed or cancelled entirely because of concern that they won't be profitable, Kaplan said.

A survey in Rhode Island shows that 89% have positive opinions on the use of wind turbines to generate electricity, but 50% rate the cost of wind as an important issue and 44% say noise is an important consideration. The state Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and the town of Narragansett surveyed local residents on the possible installation of three to 6 wind turbines on state or town properties in the area. The town is located on the Atlantic Ocean, near Nantucket.

Central Maine Power and Maine Public Service have asked the ISO New England to review the feasibility of a transmission line that would link northern Maine with the regional grid and create a path for wind power to flow to load centers in southern New England. Tim Brown, MPS director of corporate planning and regulatory affairs, said Thursday that the line, expected to be in excess of 100 miles, would allow transmission of more than 500 MW of wind power, most of it still in planning. While the idea of connecting northern Maine to the regional grid has been discussed for years, it has taken on a new significance given the difficulty utilities and merchant generators have encountered when they've attempted to build plants in the high-demand southern New England states. In addition to growing demand, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have renewable portfolio standards, which create pressure for more large scale wind. But no major projects have been built in southern New England. In northern Maine, about 42 MW of wind is operating and an additional 500 MW has been proposed. If the line is not built, Brown said wind electricity in northern Maine could be routed into Canada then into southern New England. That, however, would require major upgrades to grid interface between MPS and New Brunswick Power. Brown said the utilities expect the ISO impact study to be completed by the end of 2007.

National Grid is willing to resume negotiations with Deepwater Wind over a power-purchase agreement if certain conditions are met first, according to a letter from the utility to the offshore wind farm developer. The primary stipulation is that Deepwater must commit to a price that increases at a consistent annual rate and is not subject to other variables, such as potential delays or other complications that could raise the cost of the developer's plan to install up to eight turbines off Block Island.