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Renewable energy: Bids would add 350 megawatts of offshore wind

Providence Journal|Alex Kuffner|November 16, 2018
Rhode IslandOffshore Wind

Deepwater, which submitted its bid before the name change took effect, is proposing two options: a 100-megawatt project or a 350-megawatt alternative. Vineyard, too, has put forward a choice, between a 200-megawatt project and one of 350 megawatts.


State has tripled its supply of renewable energy in the last two years.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island electric customers are already using power from the first offshore wind farm in the nation, a 30-megawatt project off Block Island — and plans are in place to buy another 400 megawatts of offshore wind.

Now, developers are proposing to sell an additional 350 megawatts of offshore wind power to the Ocean State.

Among the 11 companies that responded to the state’s latest request for proposals for renewable energy are Deepwater Wind — which, after a merger, is now Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind — and Vineyard Wind, which both hold leases to federal waters in or near Rhode Island Sound.

Deepwater, which submitted its bid before the name …

... more [truncated due to possible copyright]

State has tripled its supply of renewable energy in the last two years.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island electric customers are already using power from the first offshore wind farm in the nation, a 30-megawatt project off Block Island — and plans are in place to buy another 400 megawatts of offshore wind.

Now, developers are proposing to sell an additional 350 megawatts of offshore wind power to the Ocean State.

Among the 11 companies that responded to the state’s latest request for proposals for renewable energy are Deepwater Wind — which, after a merger, is now Orsted U.S. Offshore Wind — and Vineyard Wind, which both hold leases to federal waters in or near Rhode Island Sound.

Deepwater, which submitted its bid before the name change took effect, is proposing two options: a 100-megawatt project or a 350-megawatt alternative. Vineyard, too, has put forward a choice, between a 200-megawatt project and one of 350 megawatts.

The proposals were among a total of 41 bids that were made in response to the RFP for 400 megawatts of new renewable energy that was released by the state in September as part of Gov. Gina Raimondo’s push to increase the supply of power from wind, solar and the like to 1,000 megawatts by 2020.

Rhode Island has tripled the state’s supply of renewable energy in the last two years on the way to that goal, according to the governor.

“The overwhelming response to this procurement shows that we are ready to keep building on this momentum,” she said in a statement. “I look forward to moving forward with this process and bringing additional clean, affordable and reliable energy to our state.”

Some of the bids would have Rhode Island buy power from land-based wind farms of up to 350 megawatts proposed by EDP Renewables and Apex Clean Energy in Maine, large solar projects of up to 170 megawatts proposed by EDF Renewables in undisclosed locations and a host of smaller solar proposals of 20 or 50 megawatts proposed by Freepoint Solar in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Vermont.

In 2016, when Raimondo announced the 1,000-megawatt goal, the state’s clean energy supply stood at about 100 megawatts. It has grown to 304 megawatts, according to the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources, with the bulk from onshore wind and solar.

Among the supply are 30 megawatts from the Block Island Wind Farm, the test project built by Deepwater Wind that in 2016 became the first and so far only offshore wind farm in the United States. Deepwater is selling power from the wind farm to Rhode Island electric users through a contract with National Grid, the state’s dominant utility.

The two sides are negotiating another long-term contract for 400 megawatts from what Deepwater is calling the Revolution wind farm. Those talks come after Rhode Island selected the project last spring in a joint RFP with Massachusetts.

The Revolution wind farm currently stands at 600 megawatts, with 200 megawatts that would go to Connecticut, which selected the project in its own procurement. But in response to Rhode Island’s latest RFP, Deepwater has proposed another 100-megawatt expansion.

Alternatively, the company says it could build a standalone project of 350 megawatts nearby that it would call Independent Wind.

Vineyard won selection by Massachusetts in the joint RFP for an 800-megawatt wind farm and, with utilities in that state, has since filed proposed power contracts to be approved by regulators. The company said that either of its new proposals for Rhode Island would be built in the same area as the project for Massachusetts.


Source:http://www.providencejournal.…

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