Providence — The Block Island Wind Farm entered its final phase of construction Monday, with five foundations installed, 30 miles of undersea cable laid and the last shipment of nacelles scheduled to arrive from France by the end of this week.

“By early September, the wind turbines on the first offshore wind farm in North America will be ready to start spinning,” said Jeffrey Grybowski, chief executive officer of Deepwater Wind, the company building the five-turbine, 30-megawatt project 3 miles offshore from Block Island’s south shore. “This is the start of something much bigger. This industry is just starting to take off.”

Grybowski spoke at an event at ProvPort, where 15 of the 240-foot turbine blades and 15 tower sections are being stored as they await transport to the construction site.

Gov. Gina Raimondo toured the site and praised the project as one that makes the country’s smallest state a national leader in a new and promising industry.

“This is precisely the kind of company and jobs we want to create,” she said, speaking at a podium set up in front of the stacks of blades. “This is the way to rebuild our economy, with high-wage, high-tech jobs. We cannot go back to low-skilled manufacturing jobs.”

The project is employing 300 workers, among them unionized iron workers, electrical workers, painters, carpenters and longshoremen, some of whom attended the event in “Block Island Wind Farm” hard hats. Also attending were representatives of General Electric Renewable energy, which manufactured the nacelles that will house the components that will turn the movement of the wind into electricity. GE also recently opened a digital technology office in Providence.

Bryan Martin, chairman of Deepwater Wind and managing director of D.E. Shaw & Co., a major investor in the company, said with the path paved by the Block Island project, the way is now clear for a burst of new projects. He noted that many of the nation’s fossil fuel plants are nearing the end of their lifespan, and that wind energy offers an economical and environmentally friendly alternative to replace them.

“Offshore wind is one of the cheapest sources of power,” he said. “It’s not just that it’s clean and renewable.”

Deepwater Wind has proposed a 15-turbine project off the south fork of Long Island that would supply about 40 megawatts of power. Grybowski said the project, which is awaiting approvals from New York utility authorities, could be operating by 2022, he said. Massachusetts has also recently “woken up” to the potential for offshore wind farms, he added.

The Block Island project was first proposed 10 years ago, and had to clear many regulatory hurdles and court challenges to reach this point, Martin said. Construction began two years ago and is on time, he added. Once operating, it will supply about 90 percent of Block Island's energy needs, according to the company.

“The challenges made this a better project,” he said. “We made sure we got this right for the state, for the ratepayers and environmental groups. All those challenges are making things go much faster for other states” now considering Deepwater projects in their waters.

Grybowski said the Block Island project is demonstrating that offshore wind is possible in the United States, and its progress over the last two years has helped jumpstart the industry.

“The Block Island project really helped solve the riddle of offshore wind in the United States,” he said.

After getting a closer look at the immense turbine blades, Raimondo pressed her index finger against one, causing it to bounce. She marveled at the feat of engineering that created these devices, which will rise atop towers about 600 feet out of the ocean.

“This is tremendous,” she said. “It’s 29 tons and if you touch it, it’s flexible.”

Grybowski said the blades, which he called, “beautiful and awesome,” will turn with a minimum wind speed of 6 to 7 miles per hour. Built by the French company Alstom, the turbine blades will be the larger than comparable equipment at any land-based wind farm in North American, he said.

“We’re here to look for the last time on land for these 15 blades,” he said. “The last five are now about 1,400 nautical miles away, and will arrive in a week at Newport.”

j.benson@theday.com