Deepwater Wind Withdraws Application for Wind Farm Electric Cable in Narragansett

Town Council members had yet to decide if they were going to approve the controversial underwater cable that would have been buried under Narragansett Town Beach.

Posted by Lauren Costa (Editor), from the Narragansett-South Kingstown Patch

Deepwater Wind on Monday withdrew its application with the Town of Narragansett to run its 21-mile underwater electric transmission cable through the town and build a new switchyard as well. 

The cable was designed to run from Old Harbor on Block Island and around Point Judith’s rocky banks before ending at Narragansett Town Beach. 

From there, as part of Deepwater's proposed five-turbine wind farm off the coast of Block Island, the line would  have transmitted 90 percent of the farm's wind power to National Grid's power system via a new switching station.

"We're continuing to explore alternative routes for the cable that will connect Block Island to the mainland, and we remain confident we'll find a suitable location," said Deepwater CEO Jeff Grybowski in a statement. 

"While we believed that Narragansett Town Beach was a good option, it was never the only location we considered. We plan to bury the cable beneath existing roadways, with little to no impact on the general public. We'll make our cable plan public once it is further defined."

Prior to Deepwater's application withdrawal, Narragansett Town Council members had not yet made a decision to accept the company's $2.25 million verbal offer for the project.

Last week, the Providence-based company secured two offshore wind energy leases for the construction of commercial wind energy farms in federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.