EXCLUSIVE | Nine hundred megawatts may not sound like much in the sweep of the 82GW US wind fleet, but offshore wind developers say a new renewables target established by the state of Rhode Island offers another important near-term pathway to growth as the offshore market scales up in the northeastern US.

Two weeks ago Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced a statewide “strategic” clean-energy target of 1GW by 2020.