July 24, 2019 — Jeffrey Grybowski is stepping down as co-CEO of Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind after nine months in the position and a decade before that with the Rhode Island startup that built the first offshore wind farm in the United States.
He assumed his current position in October when Ørsted, the Danish company that is a global leader in offshore wind, paid $510 million to acquire Deepwater Wind, the Providence-based company that completed the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm in 2016. His last day on the job was Tuesday.
By proving that an offshore wind farm could be built in the United States, Grybowski is arguably more responsible than anyone for ushering in the current rush of development, which has seen projects proposed along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Virginia.
Grybowski, 48, of North Kingstown, said in an interview that he will take some time off before figuring out his next move. He plans to stay in Rhode Island and use his experience to start a new energy venture.
“I think there are a lot of interesting opportunities to transition from the old way of producing and using energy to the new way of doing it,” he said.
His decision comes less than a week after Ørsted and its partner Eversource, the New England utility, were selected by New York to develop an 880-megawatt offshore wind farm and a month after New Jersey chose Ørsted to build a 1,100-megawatt project that is the largest proposal so far in the United States.