The First Offshore U.S. Wind-power Project Is Up And Running, Backed By The Deep Pockets Of Hedge Fund Giant D.E. Shaw. The Obstacles To A Wave Of Offshore Power Are Huge—but So Is The Potential.
IT WAS A BRISK SUNDAY MORNING in October 2015, and Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski’s cell phone buzzed. His construction manager, who was driving piles 200 feet beneath the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, three miles from Block Island, R.I., said he had to halt work on the company’s wind farm because a humpback whale had meandered near the site. Under the Endangered Species Act, it’s illegal for humans to “harass” certain marine mammals, and loudly pounding steel into the ocean floor would certainly qualify.
Worse, from Grybowski’s perspective, the law permits driving in piles only during certain months, when the whales aren’t migrating to the area. Bad weather was moving in, and if his team didn’t finish the project that day, Grybowski would have to wait another six months before the feds would allow him to sink in the final post for the five giant wind turbines that would provide the island’s power. That meant millions in losses and a disaster for his small company. Recalls Grybowski: “It was a nail-biting moment. We had no way of knowing when the whale would stop hanging out.”
Over the next few hours Grybowski hounded his foreman for information. How far away was the whale? Was it moving at all? Was it drifting closer to the construction site? By midafternoon, he had only a few hours left to finish before time ran out. Grybowski’s cell rang again, and he learned that with a magnificent flip of its flukes the humpback had swum away. The crew then sank the last piling, just making the deadline.
This story is from the March 15,2017 edition of Fortune.
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This story is from the March 15,2017 edition of Fortune.
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