US Wind Inc., an offshore wind energy development company, has named Jeffrey Grybowski as CEO.
Grybowski will lead US Wind as the company embarks on the development of a major offshore wind project off the coast of Maryland. In August, funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management Inc. committed to investing up to $265 million in convertible debt and equity to acquire an equity stake in US Wind and fund development and construction costs for its offshore wind project.
Grybowski is the former CEO of Deepwater Wind. Under Grybowski’s leadership over nearly a decade, the company developed and constructed the Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., and secured a portfolio of offshore wind power contracts across multiple East Coast states.
“We are very excited to have Grybowski lead our team at US Wind,” says Riccardo Toto, managing director of Renexia SpA, the principal owner of US Wind. “His experience in navigating the complex development system in the U.S. is unmatched. We are building an innovative company at US Wind, and Grybowski is the perfect person to lead it.”
US Wind acquired the 80,000-acre federal lease area off of the coast of Maryland in 2014. In 2017, the company was awarded offshore renewable energy credits (ORECs) from Maryland for the first phase of its MarWin project. In total, the company’s lease area can support approximately 1,500 MW of offshore wind capacity. In 2019, Maryland passed the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which increased the state’s offshore wind requirements, calling for an additional 1,200 MW to be procured from developers with projects near Maryland.
“I’m thrilled to be joining the US Wind team. We have big plans to deliver offshore wind to the state of Maryland,” says Grybowski. “This company had a strategic vision for offshore wind in the U.S. long before others in Europe made the jump to this market. We will build on that vision and together with strong financial backing from Apollo Funds, we will make US Wind a major player in the offshore wind space.”
Original source: North American Wind Power