6 MW offshore wind turbines to be installed off Rhode Island

Alstom announced a contract to supply 5 Haliade 150-6 megawatt (MW) offshore wind 

turbines

 for Deepwater Wind's 30-MW Block Island pilot Wind Farm located off the coast of Rhode Island, USA. The project will be one of the first offshore wind farms in the U.S. and will be the first to feature Alstom's Haliade 150-6 MW -the largest 

turbine

 installed in offshore waters today. The five 

turbines

 will produce approximately 125,000 MWh of electricity a year, enough to power over 17,000 homes. 

The company will manufacture the Haliade150-6 MW direct drive wind 

turbines

 and provide 15 years of operation and maintenance support for the Block Island Wind Farm owned and operated by Deepwater Wind, a leading developer of offshore wind in the United States. The Haliade 150-6 MW wind 

turbine

 features Alstom's Pure Torque design and its 150-meter diameter rotor provides an energy yield that is 15% better than existing offshore 

turbines

, supporting the effort to drive down the cost of energy from offshore wind. 

The Block Island project could lead to a larger utility-scale offshore wind farm of more than 1 gigawatt supported by a regional transmission system linking Long Island, New York and South-eastern New England. The project is aligned with The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's "Smart from the Start" offshore wind program, which aims to accelerate the development of clean, renewable offshore wind along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. 

In 2012, Alstom was part of Dominion Virginia Power's, Virginia Offshore Wind Technology Advancement Project that was selected as one of the seven U.S. Department of Energy's (DoE) advanced technology demonstration projects. Dominion Virginia Power is planning to submit a funding proposal to the DoE for the second phase of the project that will help validate the next generation of hurricane resilient offshore

turbine

, foundation designs and advanced controls technologies along with the new processes involved in installation and operation of such equipment. 

In late 2013, Alstom successfully installed its 6MW Haliade which at the time was world's largest offshore wind 

turbine

, off the coast of Belgium.  Alstom is part of a consortium led by EDF Energies Nouvelles that was awarded three projects in the first tender launched by the French government to install offshore wind 

turbines

 generating 3 GWs of wind power off the coast of France. The successful bid included a total of 240 Haliade150-6 MW 

turbines

.