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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

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Winds of change wreak havocCape Wind.

 

 

Winds of change wreak havoc on Cape Wind.

EverythingWestport.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

 

Winds of change wreak havoc on Cape Wind. Simple economics may have dealt a fatal blow to the Nantucket Wind Farm first imagined by founder Jim Gordon 40 years ago when the entrepreneur founded Energy Management Inc. just days after his BU graduation.

 

Now, that dream lies in shambles as deals with NStar and National Grid to buy up to o 75% of the generated power have fallen apart; both companies having recently terminated their power purchase agreements with the proposed offshore wind farm.

 

Unfortunately for Cape Wind, the company has missed critical milestones and has given the twin utility sisters an opportunity to bail out of expensive energy production pacts in the face of low natural gas prices and oil below $50 a barrel.

 

And Westport homeowners, businesses and town facilities may be the better for it.

 

Opponents of the project have long argued that former Governor Deval Patrick cajoled the companies to sign contracts with Cape Wind, guaranteeing the offshore wind farm would receive almost 20 cents per kilowatt hour to start.

 

And many would argue that government subsidies and tax credits allow for the production of expensive green energy projects that would never have gotten off the ground without them.

 

Ultimately, consumers will pay the extra cost through their utility bills, and no one truly knows the long-term cost of wind energy when turbines wear out and require expensive maintenance repairs without the help of subsidies and tax credits.

 

Recently a Portsmouth, RI turbine broke down, requiring half a million dollars in repairs, money the town simply didn’t have. The turbine remains idle.

 

Westport consumers at the beginning of the new year face double-digit electric utility rate increases. And lately the town was forced to renegotiate a contract with a new vendor to control large increases in its utility bill.

 

Ironically, the City of New Bedford may be the biggest loser as its vision as their wind energy center is now jeopardized.

 

“The New Bedford Wind Energy Center and the city of New Bedford have always considered ourselves strong partners with the team at Cape Wind and have been supported of their project,” New Bedford Economic Development Council Executive Director Derek Santos said. “It has always been about laying the foundation for the establishment of a new American industry,” Santos told the Standard Times.

 

Cape Wind believes the contract terminations with the two utilities are not valid, according to their Communications Director Mark Rogers.

 

New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell is still optimistic for the emerging wind industry, saying it is “far greater than one project.”

 

“The arrival of the offshore wind industry here in the northeast is inevitable,” Mitchell. The mayor expects this potentially fatal setback to be settled in court.

 

116-year-old Westport farm hit hard by wind turbine failures.

Local produce producer Nouquochoke Orchards’ three wind turbines have lain idle for quite some time, losing thousands of dollars “we could have used to sustain our business,” said George Smith, proprietor.

 

The turbines failed shortly after they were installed, and a change in ownership of the turbine supplier has hampered any kind of resolution without the farm spending tens of thousands of dollars to repair them.

 

 

 

 

 

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