Rhode Island PPA South Coast Wind 5th Postponement

by Frank Haggerty

Oct 25

SouthCoast Wind, in early 2023, after signing contracts, notified the Rhode Island Energy Facility Board that their project was no longer viable under the terms they had already negotiated with state utility companies and planned to bid for new contracts and pay multimillion-dollar fines for their self-imposed decision. 
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Next, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut announced New England’s first offshore wind multi-state coordination memorandum of understanding (MOU) in October 2023. The MOU was the first of its kind in the United States and the first to fail. Connecticut dropped out. Rhode Island may be next. 
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Rhode Island Energy selected 200 megawatts from SouthCoast Wind for its share of the project. Massachusetts selected around 1000 megawatts.
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1200 megawatts of wind power can not power 240,000 homes as conventionally formulated. Wind turbines use parasitic electricity, require maintenance, blade accidents and wear, sudden wind shifts cause shutdowns, operate at full capacity on a scale up to around 44 mph, shut down in high winds, and produce no power under 6 mph. The downtime requires a battery backup or a fossil fuel source. 
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Many offshore wind turbines have 40-kilowatt diesel backup generators needing refueling.  
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As of June 2025, the PPA power purchase agreement in Rhode Island has been postponed four times and now appears to be headed to a fifth time. 
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Rhode Island Energy posted a new schedule, which sets a deadline of November 1, 2025, to finalize a power purchase agreement. Rhode Island Energy may terminate negotiations and cancel the agreement if not successful by the new date. (see link)
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