Email

Print

  Wind News

Debate over ‘hidden costs’ of Cape Wind offshore wind project

The developer of the Cape Wind offshore wind farm insisted on Friday that the project would offer “good short- and long-term value for consumers”.

Cape Wind Associates issued a statement after the Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley demanded extra information on the costs and expected profits from the 130-turbine project proposed for Horseshoe Shoal, an area of Nantucket Sound.

The state’s AG filed her request on Tuesday with the state’s Department of Public Utilities, revealing details to the Boston Globe.

In return, the offshore wind farm developers said their costs should be kept confidential on the grounds they were commercially sensitive.

Cape Wind told the Globe that forcing it to reveal such information could have a “chilling” effect on other renewable energy developers building projects in Massachusetts.

Ms Coakley, who is currently running for re-election, is acting in the interest of Massachusetts ratepayers, and has expressed questions about whether it is in either the Cape Wind developers’ interests or the utility National Grid to keep electricity rates down.

“Acceptable solution”

Cape Wind Associates issued a statement on Friday in an effort to play down the information request.

It said: “Because the Attorney General and Cape Wind share the goals of increased clean energy development, improved air quality, greater energy independence and greater energy price stability, we are hopeful that we will be able to reach a mutually acceptable solution in the very near future.

“Cape Wind will provide a good short- and long-term value for consumers will help improve air quality and will create hundreds of new jobs in the new clean energy sector. We look forward to bringing those benefits to the region as soon as possible,” added the statement from Cape Wind.

Meanwhile, Friday saw the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities accepting a number of organizations as intervenors, formally challenging or supporting the two 15-year contracts agreed between Cape Wind and National Grid for the power from the offshore wind farm.

The list of petitioners given the go-ahead to intervene and participate in the Department’s review of the contract included the local opposition group Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, and the retail giant Walmart.

Pro-renewables groups including Clean Power Now, the Conservation Law Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists were also given approval to provide testimony, along with energy companies like Constellation Energy, Morris Energy, TransCanada Power and the New England Power Generators Association.

“Hidden costs”

The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, which has proposed moving the Cape Wind project to even deeper water which would be even more expensive, has nevertheless been speaking out about the “hidden costs” of the current 468-megawatt proposal.

The group said on Friday that it believed that each of the 168 communities provided with electricity by National Grid in Massachusetts would have to pay a $1.5 million premium for the Cape Wind offshore wind farm.

Audra Parker, CEO and president of The Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said:  “Neither Cape Wind nor National Grid have been accurate or transparent with their cost estimates.  It’s important that customers are aware of the numbers that they would really see on their electric bills come 2013.”

The opposition group cited a report from consultancy W. Robert Patterson & Associates stating that National Grid’s figures were “inaccurate”, and based on only half of the power the utility would sell from the offshore wind farm.

Commenting on the Attorney General’s call for more cost transparency, Ms Parker said: “Finally, someone on Beacon Hill is standing up for consumers, ratepayer and businesses that will take a massive hit in the pocketbook if this project is allowed to go forward.”