Off the coast of Europe, offshore wind turbines with an installed capacity of over 6,600 MW generate enough electricity to power almost five million households. In the United States, the number of households powered by offshore wind is almost zero, though, with luck that, is about to change, if only slightly. The foundations for the first US offshore wind farm are rising above the waters off Block Island, RI.  The 30 megawatt, 5 turbine Block Island Wind Farm is scheduled to be online in 2016. The Block Island Wind Farm will supply most of Block Island’s power and will help to reduce air pollution across southern New England.  Of course, opponents of clean energy have filed another lawsuit to stop the project. Deepwater Wind, the lead firm behind the project, has condemned the suit as baseless and says that “the project is proceeding at full speed.”

While this may be the first US offshore wind project, Block Island, an island in the Atlantic Ocean about 13 miles south of the coast of Rhode Island, is no stranger to wind power. The first wind mill, known as the Harbor Mill was originally built in 1770 and transported to Block Island around 1810. A second wind mill, the Littlefield Mill was installed around 1815. Both stood through the turn of the twentieth century.

The old Block Island mills used wind power to grind corn rather than generate electricity, of course. While some hotels generated their own electricity, island wide electric power didn’t arrive on Block Island until 1926.

In 1979, wind power was added to the grid, albeit briefly. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) began installing experimental wind turbines in locations with favorable wind conditions. Block Island was one such site. NASA installed a 125-foot diameter two bladed powered turbine mounted on a 100-foot tower. After moderate success, NASA decided by 1982 that the installation was too small to be economical. At the time, NASA was developing new designs with blade rotors of over 400 feet. The Deepwater Wind rotors, purchased from the French manufacturer Alstom, are roughly 500 feet in diameter.

The Block Island Wind Farm is a small but critically important first step in the further development of clean and renewable energy in the United States.  It is also in many ways a return to the reliable wind power that Block Islanders started using over 200 years ago.