Offshore Wind Wire

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: 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: RI Approves Deepwater Pricing Agreement

Rhode Island regulators yesterday gave National Grid approval to buy electricity from Deepwater Wind’s planned eight-turbine offshore wind project near Block Island.
According to the Providence Journal, Gov. Donald Carcieri praised the decision as “a critical step in our bid to develop the nation’s first offshore wind project,” but state Attorney General Patrick Lynch said he [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: MA Attorney General Calls For Cape Wind Approval

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley urged the state’s Public Utilities Commission to approve the power purchase agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid, the Boston Globe reported yesterday.
Last month Coakley helped negotiate a reduction in the proposed rate from 20.7 cents per kilowatt/hour to 18.7 cents per kilowatt/hour.
The Globe also reported that Coakley withdrew her [...]

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 [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: South Carolina Measures Offshore Wind Potential

On Aug. 4, scientists and personnel from the Savannah River National Laboratory and the Clemson University Restoration Institute installed a SODAR wind measurement tool on a Coast Guard platform off the South Carolina coast, the Aiken Standard reported.
SRNL, CURI, electric utility Santee Cooper, Clemson’s Institute for Energy Studies, Coastal Carolina University, the Center for Hydrogen [...]

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: MA Energy Chief Predicts PPA Will Survive Legal Challenge

Massachusetts Energy and Environment Secretary Ian Bowles said yesterday that the power purchase agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid would withstand a legal challenge from renewable energy producer TransCanada, the Boston Herald reported.
In a filing on the Cape Wind PPA case, the company complained that the bidding process favors in-state producers.  TransCanada filed a [...]

MORNING ROUNDUP: Final Push for RI Wind Price Approval

Rhode Island political leaders pushed Monday for the state’s Public Utilities Commission to approve a power purchase agreement between Deepwater Wind and National Grid,  the Providence Journal reported.
The pressure came as the commission enters its final week of hearing evidence on the pricing deal for an eight-turbine farm off Block Island — a decision is [...]