"I applaud Deepwater Wind for leading the way". Deepwater Wind used four separate Rhode Island port facilities - ProvPort, Quonset Point, Galilee and Block Island - to complete the wind farm's staging, construction and commissioning over the last two years.

Block Island boasts 30MW capacity, made up of five Haliade 150 6MW offshore wind turbines, 3nm offshore Rhode Island.

It's possible that Trump's administration won't wind up being as hostile to the nascent offshore wind industry as his Twitter history would suggest. Deepwater Wind is slowly ramping up energy output and still must provide additional paperwork to the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, but the executive director of that organization, Grover Fugate, told the Providence Journal, "we don't anticipate any major issues" to getting the wind farm fully online. Construction is expected to start in 2019. Land-based operations, on the other hand, tend to be most productive at night when demand is lower.

Aside from generating pollution-free energy, this technology has the potential to create thousands of jobs and power millions of USA homes and businesses.

Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski calls the opening a momentous occasion that unlocks the code of how to do offshore wind in the U.S.

National Grid said that is more than enough to meet Block Island's current demand and the excess will be redirected to mainland Rhode Island through a submarine cable. General Electric acquired French manufacturer Alstom, the company Deepwater Wind originally contracted to supply the wind turbines.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said "This is a historic milestone for reducing our nation's dependence on fossil fuels". The project will save Block Island residents as much as 40 percent on electricity bills, while creating 300 jobs. Olsen Windcarrier, LM Windpower and LS Cable, Montco Offshore, and Weeks Marine.

Investors include Deepwater Wind's principal owner, an affiliate of the D.E. Shaw group; Citi; and GE Energy Financial Services, along with lenders Societe Generale, KeyBank, HSBC, SMBC, Cobank and La Caixa. Germany and Britain are among the world leaders in offshore wind energy.

The research arrived just days after United Kingdom wind farms logged a record output, by generating more than 10,000MW of electricity for the first time.

"There is huge offshore wind potential along the Atlantic Coast, from ME all the way to SC", adds Payne.

"Congratulations to all of the many partners whose years of diligent planning and outreach have put Rhode Island at the forefront of clean energy innovation and positioned our offshore wind industry for growth". This summer in Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker, signed a new law calling for 1,600 MW of offshore wind development in the state, the largest commitment to offshore wind in the country. "We're confident that this is just the first of many offshore wind projects that will put Americans to work up and down the East Coast for decades to come as we commit to a renewable energy future".