Cancelled Cape Wind contracts a blow to New Bedford port
Providence Journal|John Kostrze|January 12, 2015
The development of a terminal at New Bedford’s port – after $113 million in state investments – suffered a blow when Cape Wind lost two electricity contracts after it failed to obtain financing for its $2.8 billion wind project by a Dec. 31 deadline.
The development of a terminal at New Bedford’s port – after $113 million in state investments – suffered a blow when Cape Wind lost two electricity contracts after it failed to obtain financing for its $2.8 billion wind project by a Dec. 31 deadline.
The development of a terminal at New Bedford’s port – after $113 million in state investments – suffered a blow when Cape Wind lost two electricity contracts after it failed to obtain financing for its $2.8 billion wind project by a Dec. 31 deadline.
Officials for Cape Wind and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the quasi-public agency set up to manage the South Terminal, said the decisions by National Grid and NStar to cancel contracts to buy electricity from Cape Wind did not fatally wound their projects. But you have to wonder.
Cape Wind planned to use the New Bedford terminal as a staging area while it put as many as 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was supposed to be the biggest tenant at the terminal and planned to pay …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]The development of a terminal at New Bedford’s port – after $113 million in state investments – suffered a blow when Cape Wind lost two electricity contracts after it failed to obtain financing for its $2.8 billion wind project by a Dec. 31 deadline.
Officials for Cape Wind and Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, the quasi-public agency set up to manage the South Terminal, said the decisions by National Grid and NStar to cancel contracts to buy electricity from Cape Wind did not fatally wound their projects. But you have to wonder.
Cape Wind planned to use the New Bedford terminal as a staging area while it put as many as 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was supposed to be the biggest tenant at the terminal and planned to pay $4.5 million over two years to lease use of the 28-acre facility and start work in January.
Now, that’s all uncertain.
Regarding the contract dispute with NStar and National Grid, Mark Rodgers, a Cape Wind spokesman, told the Associated Press: “The contract is provisioned for resolution of disputes, and it’s clear we have a contract dispute…Cape Wind is inspecting our options very carefully and fully intend to pursue every avenue to sell this valuable power to this supply-constrained region.”
“Cape Wind does not view this as a termination,” he added.
A South Terminal spokeswoman said the terminal was always planned to have many uses.
“The terminal has never been just about Cape Wind. While built to support the offshore wind industry for the long-term, we have always known that the creation of a new industry would face an uncertain timeline. That’s why we have consistently planned the facility to be a multi-use operation,” said MassCEC spokeswoman Catherine Williams. “We are actively seeking an operator to manage the facility, which will create new economic opportunities for the South Coast and Massachusetts.”
One other key factor in the turmoil is a change at the State House.
Former Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, directed taxpayers’ investments to the New Bedford terminal and was an enthusiastic supporter of Cape Wind. He has been succeeded by Gov. Charles Baker, a Republican, who has not spoken out loudly about either project.