US company Neptune Wind has announced plans to develop a 500MW offshore wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee have called for nominations for offshore projects in an Area of Mutual Interest (AMI), between Massachusetts and Rhode Island, north-east US.
Neptune has already qualified as a commercial energy leaseholder on the Outer Continental shelf and will now submit its nomination for the proposed Nomans Wind project by 3 October. The company plans to use a factory in Massachusetts for some of the manufacturing and construction and is exploring port and other facilities in Rhode Island to complement its existing infrastructure.
Offshore wind in the US is undeveloped compared to Europe but interest in the technology is on the rise and a bipartisan group of seven Senators has recently pledged support for legislation to subsidise the sector. A huge offshore transmission project in the Atlantic is set to catalyse investment in offshore by providing a vital infrastructure link back to the mainland.