Ørsted, Eversource Bid to Build 884MW Offshore Wind Farm in Rhode Island
March 14, 2023
Offshore wind developers Ørsted and Eversource said Monday they had submitted a joint proposal in response to Rhode Island's offshore wind solicitation.
Ørsted said that the proposed project, named Revolution Wind 2, would, if selected, create "hundreds of local jobs and unprecedented investments in port improvements and shipbuilding."
The project is designed to have a capacity of 884 megawatts, which is, per Ørsted, enough to power more than 500,000 Rhode Island households.
"Together with Ørsted and Eversource’s Revolution Wind – the state’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm – Revolution Wind 2 would help advance the state’s 100-percent clean energy by 2033 climate goal. The carbon emissions achieved by Revolution Wind 2 would be the equivalent of taking more than 265,000 cars off New England roads," Ørsted said.
“From the ‘starting five’ at America’s first offshore wind farm to the major work already underway for Revolution Wind, we’re proud to be Rhode Island’s trusted offshore wind partner,” said David Hardy, Group EVP and CEO Americas at Ørsted. “We’re ready to deliver even more good-paying jobs and affordable clean energy to the Ocean State, and we’re confident that our new proposal will advance Rhode Island’s climate goals while delivering on the promise of a sustainable economic engine rooted in thriving port facilities and powered by local union labor.”
According to the two companies, if selected, the project will lead to significant investments in the state’s existing ports, including $35 million to for a Regional Offshore Wind Logistics and Operations Hub at Quonset Point. The duo said it would also create local union jobs to support the expanded construction of advanced foundation components at ProvPort.
Per Orsted, Revolution Wind 2 will enable the construction of two new crew transfer vessels in Rhode Island to serve Ørsted’s U.S. portfolio, on top of the five already being built by Blount Boats and Senesco Marine as part of our Revolution Wind investments. Ørsted said it is also planning other shipbuilding investments in Rhode Island to support the industry.
Subject to its project being selected, Ørsted plans to open a new U.S. Engineering Hub in Rhode Island, creating roughly 75 new local engineering jobs in "a state-of-the-art facility that will serve as an Ørsted engineering center of excellence in the U.S."
Revolution Wind 2 will also make tens of millions of dollars of direct investments to support Rhode Island’s supply chain and supplier diversity, workforce training, education and research, environmental justice, and biodiversity, putting Rhode Islanders front and center.
Ørsted and Eversource are developing the 704MW Revolution Wind project and are expected to start construction on the project later this year. Revolution Wind will deliver 400 megawatts of electricity to 200,000 Rhode Island households. The project is expected to be operational in 2025.
