Revolution Wind finishes first turbine

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The first turbine installed at the Revolution Wind lease area. - Kate Ciembronowicz/Orsted

Revolution Wind, an industrial-scale offshore wind farm 12 miles off the coast of Aquinnah, has successfully completed installation of the project’s first offshore wind turbine.

The developers of the project, Orsted, said the installation marks a historic milestone as the first multistate offshore wind farm in the nation.

Revolution Wind is expected to consist of 65 Siemens Gamesa turbines, the same 11-megawatt turbine model used at the recently completed South Fork Wind, another Orsted project that was completed this spring some 20 miles southwest of the Vineyard. 

Once in operation, Revolution Wind is expected to generate up to 400 megawatts for Rhode Island and 304 megawatts for Connecticut, enough to power more than 350,000 homes.

According to an Orstead news release announcing the single turbine on Tuesday, construction crews have also completed the foundations for more than three-quarters of the remaining turbines.

“This is a monumental moment for Revolution Wind, the Northeast region, and Rhode Island,” said Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee in a release. “The installation of the first turbine speaks to the strong private and public partnership driving the project forward. Rhode Island is excited to build upon this progress, and lead in clean energy and the offshore wind economy for decades to come.”

Revolution Wind officials expect the turbines to be in operation in 2026.

The wind farm received federal approval in August 2023.

17 COMMENTS

  1. I’m really curious why Revolution Wind isn’t more transparent with their COP(construction operations plan)? Many items are listed as “confidential”.
    I’m of the opinion that if it’s public property being leased, then the public has a right to know what is actually happening throughout all the processes.
    Vineyard Wind was transparent and at least offered compensation to some fishermen.
    Revolution Wind, not so much.

    https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/revolution-wind-farm-construction-and-operations-plan

  2. A very sad time in history…It’s a crime to be profiting off our waters, disrupting marine life, not to mention navigating around these industrial fields, soon to be obsolete and defunct (within a couple decades they fail and we’re left with the trash polluting the environment). A few getting wealthy and the rest receiving a bit of energy for a relatively short period of time. People need to conserve! We are so wasteful and entitled, squandering our resources. Sickening!

    • A very sad time in history…It’s a crime to be profiting off our waters, disrupting marine life, not to mention navigating around the oil drilling rigs and production platforms, soon to be obsolete and defunct (within a couple decades they fail and we’re left with the trash polluting the environment). A few getting wealthy and the rest receiving a bit of energy for a relatively short period of time. People need to conserve! We are so wasteful and entitled, squandering our resources. Sickening!

      • Albert, agreed. Those oil drilling rigs are destroying our planet and our economy. Can’t wait for people to have an extra $10 grand per year to spend how they like instead of being connected at the hip to their favorite gas station.
        In ten years that is a savings of $100,000. What an incredible investment! Even the stock market can’t perform that good.
        Let’s take some revenue from the oil barons!

    • J– How can I disagree with your comment? Disrupting marine
      life and profiting from it should be a crime– Now that you have agreement
      from me, how about you convince those people who float around
      in their boats and kill millions of fish and shellfish, and “disrupt” the few
      creatures who happen to survive their industrial slaughtering complex that they are
      committing some sort of crime ?
      As far as the navigational hazards, I think the people who are fishing out there
      know how to avoid them. Just a few weeks ago about 30 fishing and recreational
      boats managed to all get in line and play “ring around the rosie” all at once around just
      one tower. None hit it, or collided with another boat.
      Come on, give them some credit– they are experienced boaters and can avoid
      hitting towers that are a mile apart. It’s only a half mile between west chop and east chop
      if i were a fisherman and you were worried that I might beach my boat because you thought
      I couldn’t get in between those 2 points, I would be insulted.

    • Free electricity, at what expense? One day you could wake up to all our southern shoreline covered in a giant oil slick, with floating toxic blades and plastics everywhere, after one good hurricane. By the way, none of this free electricity is coming here.

      • Mark, electricity is used at the first possible moment at the closest location.

        My best guess regarding the broken blade here is that the layup shop that built the blade somehow had silicone enter the shop by accident. Silicone products are so prevalent right now in our lives it may take some serious looking to see where it came from. Workers sometimes make inadvertent mistakes. I know I do.

        This windmill destruction that you envision and fear is happening nowhere. One year ago the largest blade in the world extracted 384 MW in 24 hours from a typhoon.

        There is no need to be so afraid.

      • Mark– I have to say that your continued
        insistence that none of the electricity is coming
        here is rather perplexing.
        You seem to be a fairly smart guy on the surface so could
        you explain where this electricity is going ?
        Now, I know most people have no idea about how a spinning
        propellor can generate electricity. Do you ?
        Most people also don’t know the difference between a/c and d/c
        what 60 hz means , what a watt is, what a KWH is
        and what the difference between 120 volts, 240 volts
        and 3 phase wiring is. They also have no idea as to how electricity
        is distributed.
        You may know something about electricity, but you clearly
        have no idea how it is distributed.
        Either that or you just don’t like the windmills and you know that claiming
        we get none of the benefit appeals to low information people.
        I will assume that you know that we are getting some benefit,
        how can you not ? So why don’t you stick to some real issues
        like the whales, noises, potential failures, disruption of the
        fishing industry, the visual impact both during the
        day and at night.
        There are plenty of reasons to not like the windmills.
        Claiming we don’t benefit is just plainly stupid.
        But, lust for the record– Can you tell me who is benefiting
        and the electricity -physically gets from Barnstable to New say New york
        or New Jersey. They seem to be the boogeyman states.
        But you know, I have 2 brothers who live in New Jersey, — they are
        pro wind energy– and they are constantly hearing about how the
        electricity generated there is going to go to Massachusetts.
        But, I haven’t seen any construction of a giant extension cord
        running from Barnstable to New York.
        I don’t know,, maybe the workers and the equipment needed to
        build it as well
        as the cord itself are invisible.
        You know, that “deep state” has some pretty advanced secret
        technologies.
        “Q” told me so.

      • Mark– I am commenting twice here on just one of your
        comments . So, I’m wondering where this giant oil slick
        that you think could be covering our beaches would come from ?
        Now, you may not know a whole lot about structural
        engineering, but how hard do you think the wind would have to blow to
        either bend a 25 ft diameter, 6 inch thick steel tube of pull
        it out of its 165 ft in the ground piling ?
        Let me take a wild guess– 500, maybe 600 mph ?
        How about pulling the nacelle off the tower ?
        400 maybe 500 mph ?
        If the nacells came off the tower, and sank, how would all that
        oil you are worried about get out of the enclosed gear boxes
        it is contained in ?
        And you do realize this is relatively light weight oil
        that would mostly evaporate before it got to the coast, right ?
        And how would anyone who survived such a storm be able
        to tell the difference between that oil
        and the oil from the Packer tanks on beach road in V.H ?
        Those tanks would probably come apart at 200 mph.
        And my guess is there is likely more fossil fuel in those tanks
        than in all the windmills combined.
        Or the fuel from the smashed ferries, all the private boats, and
        every single oil tank of every house that heats with oil ?
        And forget all the cars and trucks that would be in the water.
        Now– you have one valid point here– It’s possible the
        blades could come off at a mere 150-200 mph
        That would create a mess, and would be all mixed
        up on the beaches with the smashed boats and houses.
        It would be difficult to pick it all up.
        And I am also quite sure that building VW1 built on Beach road will
        be the last one standing.
        I encourage the operators of that building to confer
        with state and local officials to designate it an
        emergency shelter.

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