Wind developer wins rights to164,000 acres off IslandsAug 1 - Patrick Cassidy Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.In what officials are calling a historic day for offshore renewable energy, the federal government on Wednesday auctioned off more than 164,000 acres of ocean southwest of Martha's Vineyard to a wind energy developer. The leases, in two parts, went to Rhode Island-based developer Deepwater Wind New England LLC, for a total of $3.8 million. Winning the auction gives Deepwater Wind the right to develop wind energy projects in the lease area. The company has six months to submit a site assessment plan and another 4 1/2 years to submit a construction and operations plan for approval by the federal government. "When you think about the enormous energy potential that Atlantic wind holds, this is a major milestone for our nation," Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement released by the agency following the auction. Deepwater Wind plans to build a 200-turbine wind farm on the parcels as well as a transmission system from Long Island to Southeastern New England, company CEO Jeffrey Grybowski said. The transmission system will allow the company to sell into two regional electrical systems as well as providing those systems with greater reliability and flexibility when moving power around to meet needs, he said. The 200 turbines the company plans to use -- each 6 megawatts -- would have a capacity of about 1,200 megawatts and the total cost of the project would be about $5 billion, he said. The estimated amount of power that would be produced is significantly smaller than the federal government's estimates for the area because Deepwater Wind does not plan to locate any turbines closer than 16 miles from the nearest shoreline, limiting the number of turbines, Grybowski said. The project could be under construction by 2016 and operational as early as 2017, he said. The lease area, which is divided into a northern and a southern zone, is located southwest of Martha's Vineyard and east of Block Island. The northern zone includes 97,500 acres. The southern zone covers 67,250 acres. The auction for companies interested in developing wind energy projects in the area started at 10:30 a.m., and by 11 a.m. there were two active bidders for each zone, according to the website for the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The final bid by Deepwater for the northern section, which is considered the preferred of the two locations to develop because of its shallower depth, was $3,744,135 after 11 rounds. Once the wind farm is in operation, Deepwater Wind will pay an annual lease amount based on energy production. The final bid for the southern section was $94,153. The other companies that bid in the auction were Sea Breeze Energy LLC and US Wind Inc. There were nine companies eligible to participate in the auction, including Energy Management Inc., the parent company of Cape Wind Associates LLC, which is planning to build a wind farm in Nantucket Sound. Energy Management Inc. decided not to take part so the company could focus on completing financing for the project in the Sound, Cape Wind spokesman Mark Rodgers said. "We just didn't want to take our eye off that ball," he said. In total, the two areas Deepwater Wind will lease are capable of supporting projects that could generate up to 3,395 megawatts of energy, or enough electricity for up to 1 million homes, according to a report from the Department of Energy Renewable Energy Laboratory. Another leasing area designated by the federal government south of Martha's Vineyard covers nearly 743,000 acres, or 877 square nautical miles, and could support 4,000 megawatts of wind energy. A proposed sale notice for the area is expected by the end of the year. Proponents of offshore wind energy applauded the leasing process. "I think it's a good day for Massachusetts," said Bill White, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center director for offshore wind development. "It's a good day for the U.S. to begin the development of a resource that is extraordinarily significant and has all those benefits that we talk about quite a bit from jobs to energy independence to the moral imperative of climate change," White said. The Clean Energy Center is assisting in monitoring activities for birds and marine mammals in the second lease area south of the Vineyard and Nantucket and is overseeing the ongoing construction of the port facility in New Bedford that is designed specifically to support projects like the ones Deepwater Wind and Cape Wind are planning, White said. Jacqueline Savitz, deputy vice president for U.S. campaigns for Oceana, an ocean advocacy organization, said the lease sale is the beginning of a new era for the country's energy policy. The organization sees offshore wind as a way to reduce carbon emissions and their effect on marine life, Savitz said. "We think offshore wind if done right can be a solution," she said. The Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) still has concerns about offshore wind energy projects, said the tribe's historic preservation officer, Bettina Washington. "Now this is off where we live day to day all the time," she said about the leasing area's location southwest of the Gay Head Cliffs at the heart of the tribe's lands. In addition to concerns about the view from tribal lands, there are concerns about the impact on whales that use the area and on potential archaeological sites located on and below the sea floor, Washington said. Deepwater Wind officials have already been in contact with the tribe about a five-turbine project the company is planning off the coast of Block Island and would work with the tribe on any concerns it continues to have, Grybowski said. "They're a hugely important stakeholder in the process," he said. Although the tribe would prefer the turbines be located at least 21 miles offshore, Washington said archaeological concerns are being taken more seriously following the debate over Cape Wind and the areas farther offshore are preferable to Nantucket Sound. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=29493132 |