April 5, 2010
R.I., feds collaborating on regs for wind farms
Rhode Island’s efforts to create a comprehensive blueprint for the future use of state waters became more closely aligned with federal regulators last week as plans moved forward to develop federal engineering standards for offshore wind turbines.
Two top Rhode Island representatives for the R.I. Ocean Special Area Management Plan, or SAMP – Grover Fugate and Jennifer McCann – attended a two-day, invitation-only workshop in Washington, D.C., hosted by the Marine Board on behalf of the U.S. Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service. The March 25-26 workshop focused on developing new federal standards for the design, fabrication and installation of offshore wind turbines. No such standards currently exist, and European engineering standards are not applicable to the United States because of different maritime conditions, such as hurricanes. Read more…
