Offshore wind is finally real in the U.S. (in a tiny amount)

I’ve got a story in the Monitor today about the future capacity auction, which is kind of boring as finance but also interesting as a reflection of the changing face of the electric grid – but the most interesting bit is probably this sentence:

The annual auction also drew the first guarantee of electricity from an offshore wind farm in the U.S.: Deepwater Wind, under construction off Rhode Island, said it will produce at least six megawatts of power by 2019.

We’re talking about a very small offshore wind farm not that far off the shore of Rhode Island – but hey, it’s an offshore wind farm that’s confident enough it is guaranteeing electricity production by 2019.

The auction also included 5 megawatts from two fuel-cell operations, which isn’t unique in the country but I think is a first for New England.