Events

Opening a New Clean Energy Frontier: The First Offshore Wind Farm in America

Deepwater Wind is now installing the first offshore wind farm in the United States off the coast of Rhode Island, the Block Island Wind Farm. Moving this pioneering project forward has required overcoming unique and complex financial, environmental permitting, contractual, regulatory, and construction hurdles. Jeff Grybowski, Deepwater Wind’s CEO, will discuss this success and what it means for the development of clean energy in the United States.

Jeff Grybowski ’93 (public policy) manages the Deep Water Wind’s portfolio of offshore wind and transmission projects. He has been intimately involved since its inception in the development and execution of the first offshore wind farm in the United States, Block Island Wind Farm. The project closed on a $300 million financing in early 2015 and is scheduled for commercial operations in late 2016. Grybowski has been at the forefront of shaping the federal and state policies supporting offshore wind in the US, including playing key roles in the development of federal rules governing the leasing and permitting of offshore wind projects, federal tax policies supporting renewables, and policies at the state level throughout the northeast for offshore wind, transmission, and renewables.

Taubman Center Brown Bag Series