Deepwater Wind gets final OKs to start construction off Block Island in spring 2015

Nov 24 - Providence Journal (RI)

The Providence -based company's plan to build the first offshore wind farm in the United States cleared its final regulatory hurdles with the awarding of two more state and federal approvals.

First, the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council on Nov. 12 approved a submerged lands lease, two joint licenses, and assents for the five-turbine wind farm planned in waters off Block Island . Under the lease agreement, Deepwater will pay the state $150,000 a year to anchor its turbines to the ocean floor in an area about three miles southeast of the island.

Then, on Nov. 17 , the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management , an arm of the Department of the Interior , announced that it had given Deepwater a right-of-way grant for the transmission cable that will connect the wind farm and Block Island to mainland Rhode Island . It's the first such grant for a renewable energy transmission project ever awarded.

Both approvals were expected and were minor compared with previous assents from the CRMC and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , but they do clear the way for Deepwater to start construction next spring.

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