The company has won the auctions for the two locations totaling 164,000 acres during the bidding process conducted by US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
The obtained site is located in BOEM’s Wind Energy Area on the Outer Continental Shelf nearly 17 miles south of Rhode Island, between Block Island, Rhode Island, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.
The developer has announced a $3.8m bid for the two sites in the eleventh round of the competition.
Having paid $900,000 deposit to participate in the process, the company is set to pay remaining amount over the next few months during the signing of official lease.
As per the terms, Deepwater will make annual payments of $500,000 starting this year, until the operational commencement of a wind farm on the site.
Deepwater, meanwhile, is planning to build a 1,000MW utility-scale wind farm, featuring 200 turbines located 20 to 25 miles from the nearest landfall. The project will have a regional transmission system linking Long Island, New York, to southeastern New England.
Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said that the move is a significant step for the industry, and the project site is the best location for offshore facility.
"Our Deepwater Wind Energy Center Project will produce clean power and jobs for an entire region. It’s very exciting," added Grybowski.
Construction of the facility is expected to commence in 2017, with commercial operations expected by 2018 producing enough electricity to power about 350,000 homes.
