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The First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm Is Complete

The five-turbine, 30-megawatt Block Island Wind Farm — providing enough electricity to power roughly 18,000 homes for a year — is not going to overhaul the state’s electricity supply, but it is a powerful step forward for Rhode Island and for the country. According to the American Wind Energy Association, an industry group, there are 13 offshore wind projects under development now in the United States, with nearly 6,000 megawatts of capacity set to come online in the coming years.

The wind industry has grown nine-fold in the past decade. CREDIT: AWEA

Overall, 371 million megawatts of wind generation accounted for close to 5 percent of the world’s electricity in 2014, according to the most recent data from the International Energy Agency. Still, only 1 percent of that generation came from offshore installations, despite the fact that offshore wind power is more reliable and stronger than onshore.

The Block Island project is part — belatedly — of a growing global trend. The announcement comes just a week after the U.K. approved phase two of what will be the world’s largest wind farm, a 540-turbine, 3-gigawatt installation in the North Sea.

— source thinkprogress.org

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