Block Island Wind Farm Breezes Through “Stella”

The Block Island Wind Farm posted an impressive performance as winter storm Stella barreled through Rhode Island earlier this week.

All five turbines at the wind farm three miles off Block Island were operating at full capacity (30 megawatts) during much of the powerful storm Tuesday, according to Deepwater Wind’s performance data.

The wind farm produced clean power throughout the bulk of the storm, except for a window of several hours when sustained wind speeds exceeded 55 miles an hour. That’s the designated high-wind limit when the wind farm is designed to automatically power down and feather its blades until winds calm.

During that automatic shutdown, the wind farm successfully weathered winds that topped out at approximately 70 miles an hour. Once wind speeds decreased below the 55 mph threshold, the wind farm powered back up and resumed normal operations.

“In the offshore wind industry, we love strong storms. They give us a chance to really put the wind farm through its paces and operate at full-throttle,” said Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski. “The Block Island Wind Farm handled the season’s worst conditions superbly.”