Deepwater Wind Unveils US Offshore Revolution Wind Farm With Tesla Energy Storage

Deepwater Wind, the de facto leading offshore wind developer in the United States, has announced ambitious plans to develop a 144 MW offshore wind farm near Martha’s Vineyard that will be equipped with a 40 MWh Tesla battery storage system.

Of course, Deepwater Wind is most well known at the moment as being the leading US offshore wind developer. Considering that it is the only developer with an actual working offshore wind farm, this is something of a moot point — though, the US offshore wind industry is finally beginning to gather some steam.

Deepwater Wind’s 30 MW Block Island Wind Farm first began generating electricity back in December, making it the country’s first offshore wind farm.

Announced on Monday, Deepwater Wind revealed it plans for Revolution Wind, a utility-scale 144 MW (megawatt) offshore wind farm that will be paired with a 40 MWh (megawatt-hour) battery storage system provided by Tesla. The project is in response to requests for proposals (RFP) from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for new sources of clean energy under Section 83D of its Act to Promote Energy Diversity. Deepwater Wind’s RFP bid to construct Revolution Wind also comes with alternate versions, a 288 MW version and a 96 MW version. The location for Revolution Wind would be in Deepwater Wind’s federal lease site off the coast of Massachusetts, approximately 30 miles off the mainland and 12 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. It will be built adjacent to Deepwater Wind’s 90 MW South Fork Wind Farm, an offshore wind farm set to serve Long Island.

If fully built out, Deepwater Wind’s federal lease site could host up to 2 GW worth of offshore wind energy.

“Revolution Wind will be the largest combined offshore wind and energy storage project in the world,” said Deepwater Wind Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Grybowski. “People may be surprised by just how affordable and reliable this clean energy combo will be. Offshore wind is mainstream and it is coming to the US in a big way.”

“Revolution Wind is flexible and scalable. That’s a serious advantage of offshore wind – we can build to the exact size utilities need,” Grybowski added. “We can build a larger project if other New England states want to participate now or we can start smaller to fit into the region’s near-term energy gaps. And our pricing at any size will be very competitive with the alternatives.”

Expected to begin construction in 2022, Deepwater Wind has worked hard to sweeten its bid proposal. Not only does the company believe it can complete full construction of the 144 MW project in a single construction season, but it also announced that Deepwater Wind would be the first company to base construction and operations in the City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, thus creating hundreds of local jobs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Further, the fact that Revolution Wind will be paired with battery storage is expected to help the Commonwealth meet two of its own policy goals. First, Deepwater Wind predicts that pairing wind energy with battery storage will help defer the need to construct new peaking generating facilities, and “controversial” transmission lines. Additionally, Deepwater Wind expects that the smaller 144 MW offshore wind project will act as a bridge for successive and larger offshore wind projects to quickly follow.

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