Preliminary Rhode Island Wind Farm Planning

Michael Souza of the Narragansett Times has an initial report on sites being considered for a electricity-generating wind farm for Rhode Island…

Monday night’s monthly marine fisheries council meeting featured a presentation by Dan Mendelsohn of Applied Technology and Management Inc. of Newport.

The topic of discussion was the possible location of offshore windmills.

The company has been assigned the task of investigating wind power alternatives for the Rhode Island Department of Energy. The state’s goal is to produce about 15 percent of its energy utilizing power generated from windmills....

The preliminary plan depicts about 12 sites suitable for a wind farm, from as close as Point Judith to as far as Sakonnet Point, Napatree Point and Block Island....

Mendelsohn also specified the wind farm cannot be situated in water more that 70 feet deep.
The wind speed off the coast of Narragansett and South Kingstown varies from 7.5 to 8.5 mph. He also explained that the windmills will be cited about one half mile apart.