With the Cape Wind project in peril, we ask if the country’s faltering sector can ever flourish (and what lessons can be learned from Europe’s flourishing market).
It was recently announced that the developer of Cape Wind has terminated contracts to buy land and facilities in Falmouth and Rhode Island, the latest sign that the $2.5 billion effort to become America’s first offshore wind farm may never produce a kilowatt of energy.
The developer, which for more than a decade has sought to launch a project to build more than 100 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound, was also suspended from participating in New England’s wholesale electricity markets by ISO New England, an independent company that operates the region’s power grid.
Worse still, the failure to make payments to preserve those contracts and to maintain its position with ISO New England comes two and a half week weeks after the disclosure that National Grid and Northeast Utilities had terminated their contracts to buy power from Cape Wind, deals deemed critical to the project’s financial viability.
Protracted wrangling
In the latest ominous sign for the project, officials at Cape Wind have reportedly acknowledged they stopped making payments on an agreement last July with the Rhode Island-based Quonset Development Corporation to lease 14 acres of land in North Kingstown, R.I., which was slated to become a staging and assembly area for the project. “I can’t say why,” said a spokesman for Cape Wind.
