Breeze Lightning: The Nation's First Offshore Wind Farm Up And Running In Rhode Island

Molly Boigon is a former associate producer and reporter for Learning Curve, WGBH’s K-12 education desk. She has also worked for Boston Public Radio and WGBH’s higher education desk, On Campus. Her interests include jazz, yoga and public records requests. Before joining WGBH, she worked at SiriusXM, WZBC and WAAF. She has a degree in Applied Psychology and Human Development from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.

January 05, 2017

Rhode Island has begun operating the nation’s first offshore wind farm, which will provide power for residents on Block Island.

Governor Gina Raimondo joined Boston Public Radio today to talk about the new wind farm, which she says will bring economic development to the state.

“I think it will be big job creation over time for Rhode Island,” she said. “You have to make the blades, you have to make the electronics, you have to do the installation, and so we have a big effort to manufacture all the parts that go into it.”

The governor stressed that despite the successful end result, working on the wind farm was not without its challenges.

“It was hard to do. It took a lot of collaboration,” said Raimondo.

To construct the wind farm, which cost $300 million to build , her administration needed to get the go-ahead from deep sea fishermen and residents concerned about obstructed views, among other parties.

“An advantage of being the smallest state is you can get everybody in the room and say, ‘This is what we’re doing,’” said Raimondo.

The wind farm will power about 17,000 homes on Block Island, and will eliminate nearly 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, according to the New York Times.

She also said state pride pushed the group to compromise and work through differences.

“We have a lot of pride in how clean our bay is, our fishermen, our ocean,” she said. “The Ocean State ought to be the site of the first offshore wind farm.”

Gina Raimondo is the governor of Rhode Island. To hear her interview on BPR in its entirety, click on the audio link above.