By Antonia Noori Farzan, Province Journal, June 3, 2023
THREE MILES OFF THE SOUTHEAST COAST OF BLOCK ISLAND – The Block Island Wind Farm should serve as a model for the rest of the country, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told reporters during a tour of the first-in-the-nation offshore wind facility on Friday.
“We want to replicate this, even bigger, all up and down the Atlantic seaboard, but also in the Pacific and in the Gulf of Mexico and in the Great Lakes,” Granholm said, standing aboard a ferry that rolled gently in the ocean swells. “We want to be able to generate clean energy all across America.”
Granholm was joined Friday by elected officials including Gov. Dan McKee, Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and Rep. Seth Magaziner, as well as representatives from Ørsted, which owns the wind farm. Only three of the five turbines were spinning: Routine maintenance will be taking place throughout the summer, while there are lighter winds and calmer conditions, Ørsted representatives said.
Ørsted is also behind the South Fork Wind Farm, which is under construction. Spokeswoman Meaghan Wims said the project is approaching “steel in the water” – the wind-farm equivalent of “cranes in the sky” or “shovels in the ground.” In fact, as the Rhode Island Fast Ferry sped toward Block Island, the Living Stone, a cable-laying ship deployed on the South Fork project, could be seen on the horizon.
Ørsted is also behind the South Fork Wind Farm, which is under construction. Spokeswoman Meaghan Wims said the project is approaching “steel in the water” – the wind-farm equivalent of “cranes in the sky” or “shovels in the ground.” In fact, as the Rhode Island Fast Ferry sped toward Block Island, the Living Stone, a cable-laying ship deployed on the South Fork project, could be seen on the horizon.
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