September 3, 2019 — Offshore rescuers are sharpening their skills at and near the Block Island Wind Farm, in what are early preparations for the Atlantic Coast’s nascent offshore wind industry.
But a Rhode Island commercial fishing group has said practicing on five turbines, all in a row, can’t be considered a real test for what is expected to be hundreds of wind turbines in grid patterns offshore south of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the coming decade.
“It’s not really a farm,” said Richard Fuka of the Rhode Island Fishermen’s Alliance.
The U.S. Coast Guard has completed a case study on the Jan. 1 sinking of the F/V Mistress 3 or 4 miles from the Block Island wind farm to determine if the presence of the five turbines had any impact on the agency’s search and rescue operation. The results of the study are expected to be shared with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the key federal permitting agency for the offshore wind industry. The study has not been released publicly yet.