Posted on September 2, 2024
PROVIDENCE – The Danish offshore wind developer that owns America’s first offshore wind farm and is building a second, much larger wind project off the Rhode Island coast is expanding its presence in the Ocean State.
Ørsted is moving its office in Providence, one of two co-headquarters for the company’s U.S. operations, into a new 17,470-square-foot space at 500 Exchange St. to accommodate a growing staff that is expected to more than double in the next few years.
The move from a smaller Exchange Terrace office comes not only as the company moves ahead with construction of Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine wind farm on which it is partnering with utility Eversource, but also just before the announcement of a decision that could see its investment in Southern New England grow even larger.
Government officials in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are expected to announce next Friday the selections for the next round of major offshore wind development. Ørsted is among the four bidders and submitted a proposal for a 1,184-megawatt project that it’s calling Starboard Wind.
Ørsted developing several projects off Rhode Island
If the project is selected – and gets through a long approval process that would subject it to scrutiny from utilities regulators as well as state and federal agencies – it would be Ørsted’s fourth wind project off the Rhode Island coast.
In 2018, the company bought the Block Island Wind Farm, the five-turbine test project that two years earlier became the first offshore wind farm to be built in the United States. As part of the $510-million deal, Deepwater Wind, the Providence-based startup that developed the project, was folded into Ørsted’s operations and Ørsted took over the Exchange Terrace office. (It became the company’s co-headquarters in the United States, along with an office in Boston.)
At the time, Deepwater was already moving forward with plans for the Revolution project and for another project known as the South Fork Wind Farm to supply power to Long Island, both to be located in waters in Rhode Island Sound.
The 132-megawatt South Fork project was built last year, also in partnership with Eversource, and went into operation in early 2024. Offshore construction on Revolution Wind, a 704-megawatt project that will deliver power to Rhode Island and Connecticut, started this past spring.
Ørsted hammered the wind farm’s first monopile foundation into the ocean bottom in May. As of Friday, the company had installed more than half of the 67 monopiles that will be needed to hold up its 65 Siemens Gamesa turbines and two offshore substations. The first turbine is expected to go up soon, according to a spokesperson for the project.
Expansion comes at a rocky time for offshore wind
It has not been all smooth sailing for Ørsted in the United States. Inflation and rising supply-chain costs forced all developers to rethink projects that in many cases were set to sell power under contracts negotiated before circumstances became more difficult for the industry. A year ago, Ørsted decided to scrap two projects off the New Jersey coast, saying that high interest rates and construction delays had driven the decision.
And even as the company has generally fared well in Rhode Island, it was forced to push back the planned date to bring Revolution Wind into operation from 2025 to 2026 after Eversource, which is responsible for onshore construction, discovered more contamination than expected on the former Navy landfill that will be home to the project’s substation.
New office is part of company’s larger investment in Rhode Island
Ørsted says it employs nearly 100 people in Rhode Island at both its Providence office and at an operations and maintenance hub in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown.
According to the company, it has invested more than $1.5 billion in Rhode Island, which includes construction of a center in the Port of Providence that fabricates turbine platforms and other essential components.
The new office is expected to open this winter.
“As the birthplace for America’s offshore wind industry, Rhode Island has always been a focal point for our company’s U.S. operations,” David Hardy, CEO Americas at Ørsted, said in a statement. “We are proud of the role Ørsted has played over the years helping establish the Ocean State as a national leader in clean energy.”
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley welcomed the company’s expansion in the capital city.
“Ørsted’s commitment to growing its presence here in the capital city further underscores Providence’s status as a national leader in the blue economy,” he said in a statement.
