
Wind power in Rhode Island is in the early stages of development. There are several small scale wind turbine projects in the state. As of December 2013 there were 11 turbines at 10 sites in the state. In 2014, Rhode Island had 9
MW of installed wind power capacity, which quickly rose to 75 MW in 2019.
Rhode Island’s first commercial turbine was constructed in March 2006 at Portsmouth Abbey on
Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island ( ), officially known as Rhode Island, is an island in Narragansett Bay in the state of Rhode Island. The total land area is , which makes it the largest island in the bay. The 2020 United States Census reported its population as ...
.
Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore in the U.S., came on line in 2016.
Early windmills and NASA experiment
There were numerous
windmills in Rhode Island
A windmill is a machine operated by the force of wind acting on vanes or sails to mill grain (gristmills), pump water, generate electricity, or drive other machinery.
Windmills were used throughout the high medieval and early modern periods; ...
. Several of the 18th and 19th century windmills are still standing and are often open for public viewing.
NASA built an experimental wind turbine on Block Island in 1979.
Wind farms
Portsmouth Abbey

In March 2006 the
Portsmouth Abbey School
Portsmouth Abbey School is a coeducational Catholic, Benedictine boarding and day school for students in grades 9 to 12. Founded in 1926 by the English Benedictines, the school is located on a 525-acre campus in Portsmouth, along Rhode Island's N ...
installed a 660-kW V-47 turbine on Aquidneck Island.
Portsmouth High School
Installed in 2009, the Portsmouth High School turbine had been the largest producer of electricity produced by wind power. until faltering in 2012. In 2014, the municipality voted to replace it. The replacement wind turbine came online in 2016. It is 88
meters tall and is rated at 1.5 MW capacity.
Fields Point
Brought on line in 2012, the three wind turbines at
Fields Point
Fields Point (also known as Field's Point) is a historic park in the Washington Park neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island jutting into Narragansett Bay right near the Providence River and Route 95.
History
The point was named after Willia ...
in
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in some religions
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
are each rated at 1.5 mW. Manufactured by
Goldwind USA, they each have blades and height of and together supply about 40 to 50 percent of the electricity used by the Narragansett Bay Commission's (NBC) regional waste and storm water treatment facility.
North Kingstown
A single turbine in
North Kingstown
North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. Its population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is the birthplace of American portraitist Gilbert Stuar ...
came on line in 2012.
Block Island Wind Farm
Construction for the
Block Island Wind Farm began in 2015. It came online at the end of 2016.
Statistics
Proposals
Coventry
Ten 1.5-megawatt turbines in
Coventry
Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...
have been proposed
East Bay Energy Consortium
In 2009, the municipalities on the shores of the Easy Bay and Aquidneck & Conanicut Island formed an advisory group that worked through the legislative session of 2012 to build a wind-farm. The group consisted of professionals and community leaders, and sought to determine the viability of a wind-power facility in the hills of
Tiverton near RI route 24 and the border with
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, tenth-largest city in the state, and the second- ...
. The group generated over two years of wind data from the Tiverton heights. The 10 turbine development project would have provided energy to the East Bay and islands directly via an agreement with
National Grid. Legislation to establish a legal entity died in the Rhode Island General Assembly in 2012 over disagreements concerning state powers. Earlier in 2012, Apex Wind Energy competed in courting the City of Tiverton for use of the land, which included a proposed-but-never-built industrial park, and segments of Tiverton Water Department and North Tiverton Fire Department land.
Deep Water Wind Energy Center
In fall of 2011, Deep Water Wind submitted plans for a massive 200 turbine wind facility 25 miles from shore in federal waters. The facility would provide power to New England and Long Island communities.
Bans on turbines
In 2011,
Charlestown became the first municipality in the United States to pass a ban on any size or type of electricity-generating wind turbines. The sweeping prohibition applies to large commercial as well as smaller residential turbines.
See also
*
Solar power in Rhode Island
Solar power in Rhode Island has become economical due to new technological improvements and a variety of regulatory actions and financial incentives, particularly a 30% federal tax credit, available through 2016, for any size project. A typical r ...
*
Cape Wind
The Cape Wind Project was a proposed offshore wind energy project on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It was projected to generate 1,500 gigawatt hours of electricity a year at a first-dollar cost of $2.6 bil ...
*
Wind power in the United States
Wind power is a branch of the energy industry that has expanded quickly in the United States over the last several years. In 2024, 453.5 terawatt-hours were generated by wind power, or 10.54% of electricity in the United States. The average wi ...
*
Renewable energy in the United States
A renewable resource (also known as a flow resource) is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of t ...
References
External links
BOEM Rhode Island/MassachusettsWind Action
{{Wind power in the United States