The U.S. offshore wind market, which has lagged behind Europe for 20 years, has made significant strides in the past month as the controversial Cape Wind project near Cape Cod, Mass., received the first-ever approval from the U.S. Dept. of Interior to build such a wind farm. The project inked a power sales agreement with National Grid for half the output of the 468-MW wind farm.
Boston-based Cape Wind is years ahead of most other projects; its contract with London-based National Grid Plc says it must be online in 2013. However, other U.S. developers have a long way to go to catch up with their European counterparts before they can begin to construct offshore wind farms.