The state Rhode Island has selected Deepwater Wind to build a 100-turbine wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that the developer says will not be visible from land.
A precise location for the wind farm will not be decided until 2010,
when scientists at the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council and
the University of Rhode Island complete the Ocean/Offshore Renewable
Energy Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), a comprehensive set of
detailed regulations that will lay out how the coast can be used. The
jackets serving as foundations for Deepwater's turbines would be buried
60 to 100 feet deep in the ocean, and capable of withstanding extreme
winds and waves. Deepwater has licensed technology from OWEC Tower, a
Norwegian manufacturer whose products already are in use at
wind-turbine installations off the coast of Great Britain. The turbines
would be about 558 feet high at their highest point, company renderings
show.
