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Rhode Island set to double down on offshore wind power

October 28, 2020 — Rhode Island is set to double down on its commitment to offshore wind power.

The Ocean State became home to the first offshore wind farm in the nation with the completion of the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm in 2016 and followed up last year with a contract for another 400 megawatts of capacity from the proposed Revolution Wind project to be built southwest of Martha’s Vineyard.

Now, Gov. Gina Raimondo is looking to procure as much as 600 more megawatts of power generated by towering wind turbines that would rise up out of the ocean waters off southern New England.

Her administration announced on Tuesday that National Grid, the state’s main energy utility, is working on a request for proposals from offshore wind developers that is on track to be released early next year.

The Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources is overseeing the drafting of the RFP, which is expected to be submitted for approval to the state Public Utilities Commission this fall. Any contracts that result from the bidding would also have to go before the commission for final approval.

Read the full story at the Providence Journal

Rhode Island Targets 100 Percent Renewable by 2030

July 28, 2020 — Rhode Island has embarked on its goal of achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2030. Getting there is a work in progress, but the target will likely be reached without doing much outside of existing renewable-energy initiatives and hoping that offshore wind development reaches critical mass.

Based on an Office of Energy Resources PowerPoint presentation given at a July 9 online public workshop, the state has a fairly simple math problem to solve. Rhode Island consumes about 7,200 gigawatts of electricity annually. The offshore Revolution Wind project will deliver about 1,300 gigawatts once it goes online, which is expected in 2024. Other long-term contracts the state has with power producers, such as the the Gravel Pit Solar II project in East Windsor, Conn., will account for about 400 gigawatts. Net metering and the state’s fixed-price contract program deliver some 1,200 gigawatts. That leaves about 4,300 gigawatts, or about 40 percent, of Rhode Island’s annual electricity consumption to be filled for the state’s renewable-energy goal to be achieved.

The solutions under consideration by the Office of Energy Resources (OER) are expected to rely on renewable-energy programs like the Renewable Energy Standard (RES). The state mandate requires National Grid to make annual increases in the amount of renewable energy it delivers to ratepayers. It does so by buying renewable-energy credits (RECs) from wind turbines, solar facilities, and other qualified power systems in New England and New York.

Read the full story at EcoRI