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November 20, 2009

National Grid Again Rejects High Costs of Offshore Wind

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National Grid for the second time has turned down a proposal from a Rhode Island offshore wind developer that wants to sell the electricity retailer energy from a yet-to-be-developed wind farm.

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National Grid for the second time has turned down a proposal from a Rhode Island offshore wind developer that wants to sell the electricity retailer energy from a yet-to-be-developed wind farm.

National Grid says the price to purchase renewable energy from New Jersey-based Deepwater Wind is too high, reports the Providence Journal. Deepwater is seeking to sell electricity to National Grid for 25.3 cents per kilowatt hour, compared to the 9.2 cents National Grid currently pays for buying power on the open market. Deepwater’s price would increase by 3.5 percent annually.

The Rhode Island governor and other state officials have been pressuring National Grid to purchase wind power from the proposed $200 million project near Block Island.

In June, Rhode Island enacted a law requiring National Grid to purchase renewable energy. If the state, Deepwater Wind and National Grid can’t come to an agreement, the state’s Public Utilities Commission can order arbitration.

Deepwater Wind sees the Block Island project as a test for an eventual $1.3 billion 106-turbine wind farm that would be located 15 miles off Rhode Island’s coast.

A report from the U.S. Offshore Wind Collaborative (USOWC) cites a Department of Energy finding that the United States has the potential to generate 900,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity from its offshore wind resources.

Another study shows that annual offshore wind resources in the mid-Atlantic region totaled 330 gigawatts or nearly five times the estimated energy use in nine coastal states including Rhode Island.

Other offshore projects in Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and the Great Lakes are under development.

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Reader Comments

Each time government entices big money investment away from riskier, but clearly more economically advantageous free market (aka fighting for survival by improving their product)opportunities, and toward boondoggles like wind energy, the risk that the American public will change the rules (through whatever means is necessary,)increases. Wind energy is one of those technologies that talks big, but delivers almost no useful product, and is ultimately funded by rate and taxpayers whose consent might change as rapidly as the wind. Other nations have explored wind energy’s efficacy for two decades, and they are paying the price. We ought to know better, but group-think has us mesmerized – for now.

Tom Stacy | November 22nd, 2009

I could not agree with you more, Tom. Americans need reliable and affordable energy. Wind is a cost prohibitive and unreliable source of energy that is environmentally damaging. It’s perhaps one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the international public.

‘The wind industry tells the truth’

http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wind-energy-industry-tells-the-truth/

Barbara Durkin | December 5th, 2009

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