The state Rhode Island has selected Deepwater Wind to build a 100-turbine wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island that the developer says will not be visible from land.

A precise location for the wind farm will not be decided until 2010, when scientists at the R.I. Coastal Resources Management Council and the University of Rhode Island complete the Ocean/Offshore Renewable Energy Special Area Management Plan (SAMP), a comprehensive set of detailed regulations that will lay out how the coast can be used. The jackets serving as foundations for Deepwater's turbines would be buried 60 to 100 feet deep in the ocean, and capable of withstanding extreme winds and waves. Deepwater has licensed technology from OWEC Tower, a Norwegian manufacturer whose products already are in use at wind-turbine installations off the coast of Great Britain. The turbines would be about 558 feet high at their highest point, company renderings show.