Nation’s First Offshore Wind Farm To Start Spinning Soon Off Rhode Island

The Block Island Wind Farm in October 2016. Photo credit: Ryan Caron King / NENC

Any day now, America’s first offshore wind farm, off Block Island, will begin commercial operation.

Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Ed Markey says the project will tap into a vast new source of renewable energy right off the New England coast.

“We are the Saudi Arabia of offshore wind for the planet,” Markey says. “We have an unlimited potential to see this unfold.”

The five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm will harvest just a modest amount of the region’s offshore wind potential, but it could also be the start of a new industry and thousands of jobs. And coastal cities and companies in the region are betting Block Island Wind will give them a first-mover advantage.

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