Revolution Wind is back on track for completion next year after a federal judge lifted a Trump administration stop-work order on Monday, the governors of Connecticut and Rhode Island said at a news conference in New London on Tuesday.
New London’s State Pier is the staging area for the construction of Revolution Wind, which is located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the two states.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said the resumption of construction on the $5 billion offshore wind project by Danish developer Orsted is a big deal for the region’s electricity grid.
“This is going to represent 720 megawatts. This is going to represent 350,000 homes,” he said.
And that would help ratepayers.
“When the wind turbines are spinning in less than a year, it’s going to bring down the price of electricity because it brings down peak pricing during the winter months, which is the most expensive time,” Lamont said.
“We have some catching up to do," Lamont added, indicating that it's been a costly interruption for the project.
“We want to get an installation vessel. We’ve got until the end of this year. It was an interruption, a costly interruption, and it cost Orsted $2 million a day. But we are back,” he said.
The federal judge's ruling also means the project’s 2,500 construction jobs are back, said Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee.
“We want to put people to work at good-paying jobs. That’s what we are talking about now that we’ve got the momentum back and we've got people working on Revolution Wind,” McKee said.
The 80% completed project was suspended over the summer after the Trump administration issued the stop-work order, claiming national security concerns.
