Building Cape Wind Won't Be a Breeze
...450 MW of capacity from a wind farm 13 miles offshore. BlueWater’s team also includes Zurich, Switzerland-based ABB, a power and automation expert that installs high-voltage underwater DC lines; Denmark-based Seas NVE for offshore engineering; and Pasadena, Calif.-based Tetra Tech for environmental technical services.
Cape Wind has agreed to purchase 130 3.6-MW turbines from Munich, Germany-based Siemens but says it needs to secure financing before finalizing its engineering, procurement and construction contracts.
Fluor has discussed roles with all the major offshore developers along the East Coast. Including BlueWater, Deepwater and Cape Wind, there are 12 offshore wind farms proposed with an estimated capacity of 2,569 MW in the United States, according to the American Wind Energy Association. All but two of the projects are along the East Coast, where the demand for electricity makes it more economical to draw power from offshore wind rather than import renewable power from the Midwest or other faraway sources.
Price Point
The first offshore projects will not be cheap. “The price is high because it’s a new industry with new technologies that haven’t been developed,” Musial warns.
However, once the projects are developed, they will offer 30% more capacity than their onshore wind counterparts, and they will supply wind to the electricity grid during peak loads. Conversely, onshore wind tends to blow more often during off-peak times.
Still, the high price is a tough sell. Rhode Island utility regulators nixed a power purchase agreement between National Grid and Hoboken, N.J.-based Deepwater Wind for a 21-MW demo project. It would have cost about 26.4¢ per kilowatt-hour, not including transmission. By comparison, the Cape Wind project will cost National Grid 20.7¢ per kWh, including transmission.
For a homeowner using 500 kWh a month, the cost will translate to about $1.59 extra. Compared to a new onshore wind farm, which, according to AWEA, produces electricity for about 5¢/kWh, offshore wind could be a bargain.