"Deepwater plans up to 200 wind turbines in US waters" by Erin Ailworth | Globe Staff, July 31, 2013
A New England company has successfully bid $3.8 million for the rights to develop offshore wind farms in nearly 165,000 acres of specially designated federal waters off the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Deepwater Wind LLC of Providence said it plans to build up to 200 turbines capable of producing enough energy to power roughly 350,000 homes, with a transmission system linking Long Island, N.Y., to southeastern New England. Construction could begin as early as 2017.
That's four years away.
The company beat two competitors, Sea Breeze Energy LLC in Philadelphia and US Wind Inc., a subsidiary of the Italian renewable energy company Renexia, in the 11th round of bidding.
“This is an enormous step forward for the industry,” said Deepwater Wind’s chief executive, Jeffrey Grybowski, whose company is also developing a 30-megawatt wind project in Rhode Island state waters off Block Island. “This is the best site for offshore wind in the United States, bar none.”
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The issue of turbines spoiling views was a major point of contention in the controversy over Cape Wind’s turbines, which will be visible from shore.
And that's all the print opponents of the project will receive in this piece.
The auctioning of preapproved areas of federal waters is an attempt by the government to spur development of offshore wind projects, which have previously gotten gummed up in the regulatory process.
The Department of the Interior has identified several areas for wind energy development in federal waters, including another giant swath nearly 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard that covers more than 826,000 acres. No leases are yet available for those waters — the size of which dwarfs Cape Wind — but several developers have expressed interest in building there.
Federal officials plan to auction a lease to build in waters off Virginia in September. There are also wind development areas designated in federal waters off New Jersey, Maryland, and Delaware.
“A lot of collaboration and thoughtful planning went in to getting to this point, and we’ll continue to employ that approach as we move forward up and down the coast to ensure that offshore wind energy is realized in the right ways in the right places,” Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said in a statement following Wednesday’s auction....
Related: The Jewells Inside the Obama Administration
Frack!
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Also see: NStar Passes Wind On To Customers
Oh, the auction article didn't tell you the energy would be more expensive?
