"Deepwater Gets Financing for First U.S. Offshore Wind Farm"

"Deepwater Wind LLC received $290 million in financing that will allow it to begin building its Block Island offshore wind project in Rhode Island, the first one in the U.S.

“We’ll have steel in the water this summer,” Chief Executive Officer Jeff Grybowski, a former chief of staff to the governor of Rhode Island, said Monday in a telephone interview. “It’s an enormous step for the project, and it’s an equally enormous step for the offshore wind industry in the U.S.”

Other U.S. offshore wind projects have struggled to reach completion. The $2.6 billion Cape Wind project off Massachusetts has been under development for 13 years, stalled by legal battles with local fishermen and Native American tribes. Two utilities in January filed to cancel power-purchase agreements with the 468-megawatt project after it missed a Dec. 31 deadline to complete financing."

Justin Doom reports for Bloomberg March 2, 2015.