Earth Equity News

Cape Wind Announces Deal to Sell Half of Output to National Grid. By Matthew L. Wald, NYTimes, May 7, 2010. "Cape Wind, the huge offshore wind farm that recently won federal permission to build near Cape Cod, Mass., announced on Friday that it had signed a deal to sell half the project's output to National Grid, a New England utility, for a price beginning at 20.7 cents a kilowatt-hour. The next hurdle, which may be tough, is to persuade Massachusetts regulators to approve the deal. Retail rates for electricity in Massachusetts are now around 9 cents. And the 20.7 cents is just a beginning: The price is supposed to rise by 3.5% a year for the 15-year life of the contract. In March, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission voted down a similar deal in which National Grid, the same utility, would have bought power from a project called Deepwater for 24.4 cents a kilowatt-hour, also escalating by 3.5% a year. The commission thought the deal was too expensive compared with conventional power. Retail rates in Rhode Island now run around 13 cents per kilowatt-hour. Tom King, the president of National Grid, said in an announcement at the company's headquarters in Waltham, Mass., that the contract was a hedge against price fluctuations for natural gas and other fuels, and that subsequent offshore wind farms would be less expensive, because of experience gained building the first one."