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The developer of a proposed wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island doubled the size of the project, saying that greater scale would allow it to sell the electricity produced at a lower price.

Deepwater Wind said it now plans to install 200 wind turbines some 20 miles off the shore of the smallest U.S. state. The project could generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 800,000 typical American homes.

The high price of electricity generated by proposed offshore wind farms has generated fresh public opposition to the projects as developers reach agreements to sell their … Read more

Massachusetts utility regulators today approved the initial power purchase agreement for Cape Wind, bringing the controversial offshore wind farm product closer to construction.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities approved a 15-year power purchase agreement between Cape Wind and utility National Grid to buy half of the electricity produced at the proposed farm in the Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod.

The rates at which National Grid agreed to purchase power from Cape Wind are above market rates. But the Department of Public Utilities concluded that Cape Wind is in the public interest and the prices are acceptable … Read more

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday formally signed the nation's first lease for a major offshore wind project, as the Obama administration pushes forward to boost renewable energy output.

The lease for the controversial $1 billion Cape Wind wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts officially ends a nine-year regulatory process for the project.

"Our responsibility now is to take the lessons learned from that process--and from the growing pool of experiences with offshore wind development around the globe--and build a smart U.S. program," Salazar said at an offshore wind energy conference in Atlantic … Read more

Developers of the Cape Wind project won a legal decision that brings the controversial offshore wind farm in Massachusetts closer to the start of construction.

In a 4-2 decision issued on Tuesday, the state supreme court upheld an earlier ruling that Cape Wind could get a "composite" of permits from the state to cut through the local permitting process.

Placement of the turbines would be in federal waters, but a transmission line connecting to the mainland on Cape Cod needs to be built. Local towns and the Cape Cod land planning agency denied the project a permit in … Read more

Striking a deal with the state's attorney general, the developers of Cape Wind have agreed to cut the price of electricity from the proposed offshore wind farm in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley on Friday said that her office had negotiated a 10 percent reduction in the price Cape Wind will charge to utility National Grid for electricity. Over the course of the proposed 15-year contract, the reduction will save $456 million, according to Coakley's office.

The deal highlights how cost remains a large barrier to building offshore wind farms in the U.S. Added construction expenditures … Read more

Offshore wind installations and connections in Europe are at a record high.

For the first half of 2010, over 118 new offshore wind turbines totaling 333 megawatts worth of capacity became operational in Europe. For comparison, a total of 577 megawatts worth were installed for the entire year of 2009. In addition to those turbines up and running, another 151 turbines have been installed and await grid connection, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).

Europe now has 948 offshore wind turbines offering a total capacity of 2,396 megawatts in operation.

Of those offshore wind projects connected to the grid in the first half of 2010, EWEA estimates that E.ON Climate and Renewables developed 64 percent of them, while Siemens supplied 55 percent of the turbines.

Of course, Siemens, a major wind turbine supplier, will soon face more competition. GE announced in March that it plans to put $450 million into developing its wind turbine business in Europe over the next 10 years.

Within days of the EWEA report, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced it's forming the Offshore Wind Development Coalition (OffshoreWindDC), a coalition made up of wind developers and supportive organizations whose sole purpose will be to educate the public on the pros and cons of offshore wind, and promote its installation.

They have a good reason to develop a lobby group.

While the residents of the European Union seem to have been sold on the idea that offshore wind can be a significant contributor to their pledge to get 20 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2020, the U.S. public has yet to embrace it despite predictions of a positive impact.… Read more

Utility National Grid said that it has agreed to buy half of the electricity produced by Cape Wind, a controversial offshore wind project planned for Cape Cod, at a price that will add about $1.59 to the monthly electricity bills of National Grid customers in Massachusetts.

At a press conference on Friday, National Grid U.S. president Tom King said that National Grid will pay 20.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for the electricity from Cape Wind starting in 2013. Currently, comparable prices are about 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, King said.

National Grid agreed to the 15-year contract, … Read more

Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar on Wednesday approved the controversial Cape Wind project, paving the way for the first offshore wind farm in the U.S.

Salazar announced the federal go-ahead in Boston at the Massachusetts State House as he stood next to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. Patrick is a supporter of the project, which has been in development for nine years.

The decision means that Cape Wind can move ahead with its plan to erect 130 wind turbines, which would stand 400 feet above the seabed in Nantucket Sound, an area south of Cape Cod and north of Martha's … Read more

A Rhode Island project vying to beat out Cape Wind as the first offshore wind farm in the U.S. hit a major roadblock this week, a sign of the tough technical and economic issues developers face as they go farther offshore.

The state's Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday blocked a power purchase agreement to purchase electricity from an eight-turbine installation off the coast of Block Island. Regulators ruled that the proposed purchase price--24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2013, which is almost double the retail rate in the state--was too high, a move which casts doubt on whether the project will move forward.

Cape Wind, meanwhile, on Wednesday announced plans to purchase 130 turbines from Siemens Energy. Developers of the controversial project are still negotiating a power purchase agreement with utility National Grid and are waiting a ruling on final federal approval from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar later this month.

Having seen the oppositionto Cape Wind, other wind developers are choosing to go farther offshore and into deeper waters, as they did in Rhode Island. That helps address complaints over the visual impact of wind mills, but it also adds to the technical complexity and cost of offshore wind, according to experts.

"The clear trend has been for projects proposed in federal waters (farther off shore). Part of that is due to wind resources and part of it is due to an effort to minimize opposition," said Matt Kaplan, an analyst at Emerging Energy Research. "The clear trend has been to minimize the visual impacts as much as possible."

The proposed location of Cape Wind--in the Nantucket Sound south of Cape Cod--was chosen as much for its wind resources as its waters depth. Building on a shallow shoal in the middle of the sound would allow construction crews to use monopile foundations, which work in depths of about 75 feet. This technology is used in hundreds of locations in eight European countries.

By contrast, the Rhode Island project, which had been pushed heavily by the state's governor, would have required a different type of foundation suitable for deeper waters. Wind developer Deepwater Wind in August last year installed a barge to test the ocean floor in advance of plans to install its jacket foundation, which can operate in 150 feet of water and doesn't require special vessels to transport components to offshore sites. … Read more