Offshore Wind Wire

MORNING ROUNDUP: Three Developers Reply To Evanston Offshore Wind RFI

Three offshore wind developers responded this summer to a request for information from the city of Evanston, Illinois, according to Medill Reports, a Northwestern University-based Web site.
The article did not identify the companies that submitted responses.
City officials issued the RFI to gain more insight into a plan for 40 offshore wind turbines in Lake Michigan.  [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Appeals Filed Over RI Power Deal

The Rhode Island attorney general, an environmental nonprofit and an industry partnership appealed the recent approval of a power purchase agreement for the Deepwater Wind project near Block Island, the Providence Journal reported Tuesday.
Attorney General Patrick Lynch and the Conservation Law Foundation appealed the decision by the Public Utilities Commission to the Supreme Court, [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Cape Wind Will Cost More Than $2.5 Billion

The Cape Wind offshore wind project will cost more than $2.5 billion to build, not including the cost of financing, the Boston Globe reported over the weekend.

The Globe reported on an analysis of the Cape Wind power purchase agreement.  That analysis, by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, was submitted to state regulators who [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Cape Wind Contract Survives External Challenge

Massachusetts regulators directed a local utility to rebid three land-based wind contracts but exempted Cape Wind from the decision, the Boston Globe reported.
The Public Utilities Commission said that NStar must allow out-of-state electricity generators to compete for three contracts but Cape Wind — which has a contract with National Grid — was excluded because that [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: MA Governor Candidates Criticize Cape Wind

Three Massachusetts gubernatorial candidates criticized the Cape Wind offshore wind project yesterday while incumbent Gov. Deval Patrick defended the effort, the Boston Globe reported.
Republican Charles Baker said that Cape Wind got “a sweetheart deal’’ from the state, according to the Globe.// Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein said there was a lack [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Michigan County Rejects Offshore Wind Interest

Commissioners in Oceana County, Michigan, decided yesterday to effectively block a wind project off their shores in Lake Michigan, the Muskegon Chronicle reported.
County commissioners voted 4-2 not to move forward with studies on a 500 megawatt offshore wind farm proposed by Scandia Wind.  Scandia had asked local counties to decide if the visual presence of [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Offshore Energy Institute Founder Dies In Maine

Matthew Simmons, the leader and founder of the Offshore Energy Institute, died of an apparent heart attack last weekend, the Kennebec Journal reported.
Simmons founded the think tank in 2007.  The paper quoted Bob West, the institute’s managing director, saying that the organization will “carry his vision forward.”
Maine Panel Reviewing Floating Turbine Submissions
A University of Maine [...]

Offshore Wind Debate Intensifies in Michigan

By Peter Brennan
An offshore wind farm proposal was met Wednesday with an angry response from audience members in the West Michigan town of Hart, the Muskegon Chronicle reported.
Scandia Offshore Wind presented its proposal for a 250 megawatt wind farm four miles off the coast of Pentwater, MI, at the meeting in Oceana County. According to [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Cape Wind Reduces Power Price

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley brokered a deal late last week to reduce the cost of electricity from the Cape Wind offshore wind project, the Boston Herald reported on Friday.
In May, National Grid agreed to buy half of the electricity produced by the proposed 130-turbine wind farm.  The price in the first year of operations [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: MA and RI Sign Offshore Wind Pact

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday to coordinate their offshore wind planning and development in federal waters, the Boston Globe reported on it’s Web site.
The agreement covers a “400-square mile ‘area of mutual interest’ twelve miles southwest of Martha’s Vineyard and extending 20 miles [...]