U.S. energy secretary set to visit ProvPort offshore wind facility
PROVIDENCE – U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm is set to visit Rhode Island on Thursday as part of a two-day swing through New England to promote the Biden Administration’s $1.2-trillion infrastructure package.
Granholm plans to meet up with Governor Dan McKee for an afternoon tour of an assembly and manufacturing hub under construction in the Port of Providence to support the development of offshore wind farms planned for ocean waters near the Rhode Island coast. While there, she is expected to talk about how the bipartisan infrastructure plan can benefit Rhode Island.
Granholm is coming to Rhode Island at the invitation of McKee.
“Rhode Island has been a pioneer and a national leader in clean energy and innovation and I’m proud to showcase our efforts to build a more sustainable future," the governor said in a statement.
The ProvPort hub is being built by Denmark-based Orsted, one of the leading offshore wind developers in the world, and its partner Eversource, an electric utility headquartered in Boston.
The companies are jointly developing the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm, which last week became only the second commercial-scale offshore wind farm to win federal approval, as well as the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind Farm, which would supply power to Rhode Island and Connecticut. Both projects would be built in waters south of Little Compton between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard.
The projects come amid the federal government’s push to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. There are currently only two offshore wind farms in America and both are small demonstration projects: the 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm, completed in 2016 in Rhode Island state waters and the first of its kind in the nation, and a 12-megawatt array off Virginia.
The infrastructure package signed into law last month is expected to help spur the offshore wind industry by funding improvements to the electric transmission system and channeling money into ports used by developers for staging construction.
Granholm was in Delaware and Pennsylvania two weeks ago to highlight the law’s impacts on energy efficiency programs and she visited Tennessee last week to talk about electric vehicles.
The first stop on her visit to New England will be Thursday morning at a manufacturer of EV charging stations in Enfield, Connecticut. She’ll then go to New Haven to see technology aimed at reducing methane emissions that contribute to climate change.
From there, she will travel to ProvPort, where she will meet with McKee and David Hardy, CEO of Orsted Offshore North America, and Joe Nolan, CEO and president of Eversource. Members of the local ironworkers union who are building the $24-million offshore wind hub will also be on hand.
Orsted, the owner of the five-turbine Block Island Wind Farm, and Eversource plan to use the new facility as a regional hub to fabricate and assemble foundation platforms for wind turbines to be installed not only for their South Fork and Revolution projects but also for the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind, which would supply New York and be built off that state’s coast.
The platforms are critical components for the companies’ proposed wind farms. They would be mounted on foundations secured to the ocean floor and wind turbines would be installed on top of them.
Granholm will finish her trip on Friday in Boston to meet with community members and elected officials about energy justice issues and weatherization efforts.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will visit Providence port
