An energy consultant stood by his assertion that the price of power from an offshore wind farm proposed off Block Island is high, but he acknowledged Friday that the state Public Utilities Commission may consider long-term economic benefits from the project when it assesses the price. ...Richard Hahn, a power-market analyst hired by the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, did not back off the assertion he made in written documents that Deepwater Wind could lower the price of power and still make an acceptable return on its investment.

The chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday raised concerns about the potentially groundbreaking decision he and his two colleagues must make for or against a power-purchase agreement between Deepwater Wind and National Grid. Elia Germani spoke out on the third day of evidentiary hearings on a 20-year contract that would see National Grid pay 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour for power in the first year from an eight-turbine wind farm Deepwater is planning within three miles of Block Island.

The chairman of the state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday raised concerns about the potentially groundbreaking decision he and his two colleagues must make for or against a power purchase agreement between Deepwater Wind and National Grid. Elia Germani spoke out on the third day of evidentiary hearings on a 20-year contract that would see Grid pay 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour for power in the first year from an eight-turbine wind farm Deepwater is planning within three miles of Block Island.

The chief executive officer of Deepwater Wind answered criticism on Wednesday about the high price of power from a wind farm that his company has proposed off Block Island, saying that a premium should be expected for a type of project that has never been done before in the United States.

Block Island could meet most of its electricity needs through clean energy generated by the eight-turbine wind farm proposed for southeast of the island, at reasonable prices usually associated with fossil fuel generation, Deepwater Wind CEO Bill Moore testified to the Pubic Utilities Commission Wednesday. However, that does not factor in the cost of a cable connecting Block Island to the mainland — essential to the viability of the project — or the above-market costs that mainland ratepayers would have to shoulder.

The executive director of the Energy Council of Rhode Island, a nonprofit organization known as TEC-RI that represents 35 of the state's biggest manufacturers, universities and hospitals, testified on Tuesday against an agreement under which Deepwater Wind would sell power generated by the offshore wind farm at more than twice the price National Grid pays for electricity from conventional sources.

Some of Rhode Island's largest users of electricity have come out for the first time in opposition to a proposed power-purchase agreement between National Grid and the developer of an eight-turbine wind farm in waters off Block Island. ..."We have concluded that this contract includes a price that is so high that it more than negates any other potential attractive features."

Deepwater Wind says that the criticisms of its deal to sell wind power from its proposed Block Island wind farm to the mainland National Grid, which are found in testimony filed with the Public Utilities Commission, are way off base. Richard S. Hahn of La Capra Associates in Boston, working for the state Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, had testified that the negotiated price is at the "high end" of comparable projects.

Islanders covet this view. Tourists make the 13-mile ferry trip south from mainland Rhode Island to see it. It’s what draws Rosemarie Ives to her family’s summer home overlooking the clay bluffs each year. “The view,” says Ives, “is precious.” But the panorama could be on the verge of lasting change. Eight wind turbines are proposed in the ocean three miles southeast of Block Island.

Issues are prompting the General Assembly to consider major changes in the way the controversial agency operates and who actually holds the decision-making power. ...That has put it in the middle of angry battles over Newport condominiums, million-dollar "cottages" near pristine beaches and the successful, but long-delayed, $43-million Providence River dredging project. Now, it is managing a $10-million study that is a prelude to a planned $1.5-billion wind farm off Block Island.

Although few residents seem to realize it yet, this rural town on the eastern edge of the Litchfield hills could well determine the future of wind energy in Connecticut. For the past year, a 180-foot meteorological tower has bobbed above the tree line along Route 44, measuring the wind's speed and constancy to test the feasibility of erecting the state's first commercial wind farm.

Saying that for too long the Atlantic states, including Rhode Island, have toiled separately in developing offshore wind energy, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar gathered the governors of those states Friday in Washington, D.C., and pledged to form a consortium to speed development of wind energy.

The Town Council this week decided that Jamestown should become a renewable energy producer by constructing a single wind turbine at Taylor Point - but not at Ft. Getty. The Feb. 16 vote directs the town to start the grant application process for $750,000 in federal - and $500,000 in state - contributions towards the roughly $5 million it will cost to build a single turbine.

The price that Deepwater Wind would receive for the power from eight turbines planted three miles off the southeast coast of Block Island is at the "high end" of comparable projects, the rate of return to the project's developers is almost 100 percent, and Deepwater's estimate of operation and maintenance costs is "very high," says an expert witness in the Deepwater-National Grid rate contract case.

The town council approved a request by the Tiverton Planning Board to establish a moratorium on issuing permits for wind energy generators/turbines Monday. Town councilor Louise Durfee filed a motion to issue a temporary moratorium until May 10. A proposed wind turbine at Sandywoods Farm would be exempt from the decision because it received final approval from the Planning Board several months ago.

In written testimony filed with the state Public Utilities Commission this week, Richard S. Hahn, a principal consultant with the Boston-based La Capra Associates, recommends lowering the price reached in a power-purchase agreement between developer Deepwater Wind and electric utility National Grid. "[National Grid] and Deepwater should be encouraged to attempt to arrive at a revised PPA price that reflects a more just and reasonable balance between the interests of ratepayers and the desire to jump-start a nascent renewable energy business in Rhode Island," he wrote.

The wind turbine debate became mired in confusion as council members, the town administrator, a consultant and the public debated a question raised by newly updated financial predictions - namely, whether the town would make any money by selling electricity produced by a single, or twin, turbines. During a recent workshop, the council asked the Wind Energy Committee to provide profit estimates reflecting the retail price that R.I. towns may charge.

All the reasons given to support the Block Island wind farm project are wrong, says the consultant hired by island residents Michael and Maggie Delia to help them oppose the development of an eight-turbine wind farm southeast of the island. The Delias, of Southeast Point and Whitehouse Station, N.J., who cite years of experience in the aircraft industry and as business consultants, are intervenors in the Public Utilities Commission case involving the power purchase agreement between Deepwater Wind and National Grid.

Deepwater Wind is planning an eight-turbine project in Rhode Island state waters, near Block Island. The company reached a power purchase agreement last month with National Grid - the utility agreed to pay 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity from the wind farm. ...William Short told the Public Utilities Commission that the proposed wind farm was too small to be commercially viable.

About 40 construction workers showed up at a public hearing Wednesday night in support of a proposal to build two wind farms off the Rhode Island coast. The union workers said the offshore wind farms proposed by Deepwater Wind would create high-paying jobs for years ...Under the proposed deal, National Grid would pay Deepwater 24.4 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity generated by the Block Island wind farm.