Behind The Sound Bite: Cape Wind
Last week, when the state Supreme Judicial Court agreed to a deal allowing National Grid to buy power from the Cape Wind project on Nantucket Sound, the Boston Herald quoted Cape Wind CEO Jim Gordon as saying, “We’re hoping that within about a year we will be able to be producing clean, home-grown energy.” The Herald said the company quickly clarified that construction won’t start until 2013, and it will take 18 months after that for it to start making energy. But project opponents predict a start date more along the lines of “never.”
What did the SJC rule?
The verdict supports the state Department of Public Utilities’ approval of a 15-year deal under which National Grid (the electric utility for most of Worcester County) would buy half of the offshore wind farm’s power, starting at 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour, with the price rising 3.5 cents a year. The cost is estimated to be slightly higher than traditional electricity sources, representing less than $2 a month for residential customers, but more for businesses that use more power.
How did opponents react?
Audra Parker, president and CEO of Cape Wind opponent Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, issued a statement calling the decision irrelevant. “The good news is the increasingly clear reality that Cape Wind will never be built,” she wrote, because of issues that include the company’s inability so far to sell the rest of the power it will generate.
How significant is that issue?
Cape Wind is confident it will be able to sell the power, but a deal with NStar (which serves most of MetroWest), which many see as the most likely buyer, has not come through at this point. Some observers have argued that the state has been pushing NStar to make a deal with Cape Wind by making the use of renewable power a condition of its pending merger with Northeast Utilities. So far, though, NStar has said it will satisfy state requirements with land-based wind power instead.
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