The reduced area for federal offshore wind leasing near Massachusetts begins 12 miles offshore and covers 2,542 square nautical miles.  Under the original plan the leasing area began nine miles offshore and covered 1,300 additional square nautical miles, according to the Times.

The announcement came yesterday during a meeting of the Massachusetts task force formed to consider offshore wind development in federal waters near the state.  The task force will have 10 days to comment on the newest draft and federal officials could issue an official request for information this fall, the Times reported.

Massachusetts, Rhode Island Officials To Collaborate

Energy and planning officials from Massachusetts and Rhode Island will meet on Sept. 15 and Sept. 16 to discuss Rhode Island’s ocean-mapping project, North American Windpower reported yesterday.

The two states signed a memorandum of understanding last month agreeing to work together in developing offshore wind energy projects.  The meetings will provide information on how the Rhode Island planning process will be used for offshore wind planning.

Providence Journal Supports Cape Wind

In an editorial published today, the Providence Journal backed the Cape Wind offshore wind project.

The paper said the price of electricity from the project must be compared to projections that fossil fuel prices are expected to rise in coming years.

“Looking at where the world’s going, that’s a bargain,” the Journal wrote.

State regulators recently approved the electricity purchase deal between Deepwater Wind and utility National Grid.  The utility agreed to buy electricity produced by a proposed eight-turbine wind farm near Block Island for 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour in the first year of operations.

After the deal was approved, however, state Attorney General Patrick Lynch, the Conservation Law Foundation and two manufacturers filed appeals to the Supreme Court.

A spokesman for the state Division of Public Utilities and Carriers said the records could be submitted to the court next week, the Journal reported.  After those documents are filed, however, it could still be months before the court is prepared to hold a hearing.

According to the Journal report, Deepwater is not delaying its development or permitting efforts while the appeal process is underway.

Smaller Cape Wind Would Mean Higher Electricity Costs

The Maine-based Institute could continue as a non profit research group, join with another organization or pursue a private, for-profit path in the offshore energy arena, according to the Press Herald.

“Those are all things that are part of Matt’s vision, and we are working on that,” Allen Fernald, the secretary of the Institute’s board, was quoted as saying.

The board of directors is expected to develop a plan in time for the next meeting of the Institute’s advisory board — which is scheduled for September 20.

Cape Wind Hearings Begin in Boston

Twelve days of hearings on the Cape Wind power purchase agreement were scheduled to begin Tuesday at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, the Boston Herald reported yesterday.

The hearings will focus on the cost of electricity generated by the proposed 130-turbine wind farm.  National Grid has agreed to pay 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour for that electricity in the first year of operations, with a 3.5 percent annual escalation.

“There so much animosity,” said Timothy Shevlin, the executive director of the Department of Public Utilities.  “So it’s not really routine.”

The company is making a strong push in sodar technology systems and CEO Larry Letteney told Mass High Tech that Second Wind now has 65 percent of the market for remote sensing technology for wind.  Last month, the company’s Triton Sonic Wind Profiler was installed on a Coast Guard platform off the coast of South Carolina to measure offshore wind speeds.

Letteney was quoted as saying that the move to a larger facility will help the company meet growing demand.

New Jersey Activists Protest Offshore Wind

Protesters in Atlantic City decried the state’s plans to accelerate its offshore wind industry, the Press of Atlantic City reported yesterday.

A spokesman for the protesters — who were calling themselves Americans for Prosperity — was quoted as saying that offshore wind development “will destroy this economy.”

The Maine Public Utilities Commission issued a request for proposals Wednesday for a deepwater offshore wind pilot project and tidal renewable energy demonstration project. The RFP is the result of a law passed by the state legislature in April that implemented the recommendations of the Governor’s Ocean Energy Task force.

According to the RFP, the offshore wind project must employ “one or more floating wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine no less than 10 nautical miles from shore and at a depth no less than 300 feet. The pilot project must also “connect with Maine’s electrical transmission grid.”

The request is only the first step in Maine’s march toward deepwater wind power — the winning developer must have the ability to eventually turn the pilot farm into a 100 MW floating wind farm.

The emphasis on floating turbines should not surprise anyone familiar with Maine’s offshore wind aspirations.  In June, Maine voters approved the borrowing of $26 million for a variety of energy issues, including $11 million for research on deep water floating turbines.  Additionally, the legislation that begat the RFP was amended in the legislature to focus on deepwater floating turbines to placate fishermen and coastal landowners worried about their view shed.  The University of Maine, under the direction of Habib Dagher, is seen as a world leader in deepwater floating turbine technology.

The “tidal energy demonstration project” must be one that uses tidal action as a source of electric power, and must be proposed for the primary purpose of testing tidal energy generation technology.  Under the terms of the RPF, the Public Utilities Commission can authorize one or more long-term power purchase contracts to cover the 30MW of installed capacity, so long as no more than 5MW comes from the tidal demonstration project.

The number of offshore wind turbines required to generate the remaining 25 MW remains to be seen, but depends largely on the specifications of the winning bidder’s designs.

The RFP keeps Maine ratepayers in mind by stating that no customer class can see their electric rates rise more than $1.45 per MWh as a result of the demonstration project. The deadline for submitting initial proposals is May 1, 2011.

According to the Globe, if the court decision had gone the other way “the project would probably have been delayed indefinitely or killed outright because several permits would have had to come from a community and a regional agency that oppose the project.”

Cape Wind is still waiting for the Department of Public Utilities to make a decision about the power purchase agreement that the project signed with National Grid.

The court’s decision cannot be appealed but opposition Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound vowed to continue its broader fight against the proposed 130-turbine wind farm, the Associated Press reported.

“This is far from over, despite this ruling,” said Audra Parker, the group’s director.

Fishermen’s Energy Plans To Launch Turbines From Camden

New Jersey-based Fishermen’s Energy plans to bring offshore wind turbines from Camden, NJ, through the Delaware Bay and then up the coast to the company’s first project off Atlantic City, the Press of Atlantic City reported yesterday.

The six-turbine project — which is planned for state waters — could begin construction next year, the paper reported.

MA Working on Offshore Wind Pact Gosnold

State officials and representatives from the sparsely populated island of Cuttyhunk are drafting a Memorandum of Understanding to guide development of the first offshore wind development in Massachusetts waters, the Martha’s Vineyard Gazette reported.

After the state’s ocean management plan identified an area near Cuttyhunk last year for offshore wind development, local leaders said they would be willing to host a wind farm.  Officials from the island’s only town — Gosnold — are gathering feedback from residents but will not share any information on the process until the MOU is complete, according to the Gazette.

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.  The city manager is now reviewing the responses, according to Medill Reports.  An environmental advocacy group, Citizens for a Greener Evanston, is attempting to answer citizen questions about offshore wind development, the Web site said.

“We’re just now moving forward to see if this will actually make sense for our community,” said Nathan Kipnis, a member of the advocacy group.

The Web site quoted Kipnis saying that the community’s offshore wind proponents are “looking at a seven or eight year process.”

Cape Wind Foes File Motion with MA Regulators

Cape Wind opponents asked the Massachusetts Department of Public Uilities to block the wind farm’s power purchase agreement because of alleged flaws in the solicitation process, the Boston Herald reported over the weekend.

Cape Wind criticized the motion as a stall tactic.

“This is yet another in a long series of attempts by this coal- and oil-funded opposition group to try to delay Cape Wind’s benefits of hundreds of new jobs, greater energy independence and cleaner air to the people of Massachusetts,” said Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers.

The Ocean Special Area Management Plan (SAMP) — which has taken two years and cost more than $8 million — conducted research beyond the three-mile state boundary but is not allowed to extend the planning process into federal waters, according to Grover Fugate, executive director of the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council.  Fugate said that he has received specific warnings from the federal government on this point, the Journal reported.

The chairman of that same council, however, told the Journal that he was “shocked” by the limited scope of the planning.

CRMC Chairman Michael M. Tikoian was quoted as saying that “the objective was to pinpoint spots and we were never, ever told that we couldn’t do that for the federal waters.

Tikoian said also that the council might decide to ignore the federal prohibition and include planning for federal waters.

“The call is the council’s to make,” the Journal quoted him as saying.  “The work has been done. The information is there. We may just put it in and work it out with the federal government later.”

Boston Globe Pushes For Cape Wind Approval

The Boston Globe editorial page today called on Massachusetts regulators to approve Cape Wind’s power purchase agreement in order to keep the state on the cutting edge of the offshore wind industry.

The editorial acknowledged that electricity from offshore wind was more expensive than consumers are accustomed to, but it said the prices were reasonable and that Cape Wind will not “pocket Goldman Sachs-level profits.”

“Consumers are justified in asking if the state is right to require utilities to bring on costly renewable power like Cape Wind’s,” the Globe editorial staff wrote.  “The answer is no if the goal is simply to keep utility costs as low as possible in 2010 — but yes if Massachusetts wants to be a future leader in renewable technology.”

“The Paulsboro Marine Terminal, a port on the Delaware River the state has struggled to revitalize, is considered an ideal site for manufacturing wind turbines,” the paper reported.

Blade Manufacturer Announces Massachusetts Factory

Blade manufacturer TPI Composites announced plans to open a 69,000-square-foot factory in Fall River, MA, the Providence Journal reported today.

The company has a research and development facility nearby in Rhode Island, and state officials there had hoped the company would open the factory at the planned offshore wind hub in Quonset, RI.

The TPI R&D facility and the factory will cooperate to build prototype blades, which will then be transported to Boston’s new blade testing facility, according to the Journal.  Mass production of blades will only take place near the site of proposed wind farms, according to TPI Vice President Ed DaSilva.

The Journal reported that the Fall River factory will open in early 2011 with 30 employees, although that could increase based on the developing offshore wind industry.

The company aims to generate 30 percent of its sales from wind power by 2020, according to the report.

“It’s a very ambitious target and it won’t be easy,” Chief Strategy Officer Koh Young Youl said in an interview with Bloomberg.  “Still, the market potential for wind power is very big, partly because there’s a lot of interest in going offshore as the space on land runs out.”

Some Link Seal Death To Offshore Wind Development

Scientists from St Andrews University are investigating a series of seal death’s off Britain’s east coast and are considering the possibility that they are connected to offshore wind development, London’s Daily Mail reported.

The St Andrews scientists are looking into the theory that construction boats associated with the Sheringham Shoal wind farm may have caused the so-called “corkscrew” seal deaths.

The engineering firm working on the project, however, has rejected that possibility, London’s Guardian reported.