Deepwater Wind 30-MW plan off Rhode Island to get ITC - report

Dec 20, 2013 - US firm Deepwater Wind LLC has incurred more than 5% of the costs for its 30-MW Block Island wind project off the Rhode Island coast so it should qualify for the investment tax credit (ITC), Bloomberg said Thursday.

The company’s CEO Jeff Grybowski told Bloomberg by phone that he was convinced the USD-300-million (EUR 220m) project would qualify for the US government's ITC before it expires at end-2013. The tax credit covers up to 30% of the capital cost of wind farms. To be able to claim the incentive, projects need to prove they have commenced construction before January 1 or show they had spent at least 5% of the project’s anticipated total cost by end-2013.

According to Grybowski, Deepwater Wind will not only meet the 5% threshold, but will surpass that "by a good margin".

The five-turbine Block Island demonstration wind farm will produce more than 125,000 MWh per year, the developer calculates. Construction works offshore are to start in 2015.

Apart from the 30-MW offshore wind farm, Deepwater Wind also plans to develop a project of up to 1 GW off the coasts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts after in July it won two offshore wind leases in federal waters. The Deepwater Wind Energy Center (DWEC) is planned to include as many as 200 wind turbines, which could start commercial operations in 2018 at the earliest.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.733)

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