Last November, we posted Wind Power Returns to Block Island about a planned offshore wind farm.  The installation of America’s first offshore wind farm has finally come to pass.  America’s very first offshore wind turbine was erected recently off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. Perhaps paradoxically, while the new wind turbines are the first offshore wind farm in the United States, wind power is not by any means new to Block Island.

The new Block Island wind farm is a five turbine 30 megawatt project which developed by Deepwater Wind, which should provide most of the power required for Block Island, an island in the Atlantic thirteen miles south of the coast of Rhode Island.  Compared to European wind farms with an installed capacity of over 6,600 MW, the Block Island installation is tiny. Nevertheless, it is a start.

Block Island, however, is no stranger to wind power. The first wind power arrived on Block Island over 200 years ago. As we posted last November, the first wind mill, known as the Harbor Mill was 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.