Opponents challenge 468-MW Cape Wind PPA, again

Aug 29, 2014 - Opponents of the 468-MW Cape Wind wind project off the Massachusetts coast have filed a legal brief with the US Court of Appeals in Boston in relation to an earlier lawsuit challenging the Nstar power purchase agreement (PPA).

That the brief was submitted by the town of Barnstable, local businesses, residents and the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the latter said in a statement on Wednesday. The plaintiffs’ move is aimed at overturning an earlier decision by US district judge Richard Stearns that rejected the lawsuit challenging Massachusetts-based Nstar’s off-take deal for 27.5% of Cape Wind’s output.

The project opponents insist that Massachusetts had illegally used its regulatory power to protect Cape Wind from out-of-state green energy producers that would have proposed lower power purchase tariffs. They claim the state has “coerced” utility NStar into a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) that was “high-priced” and “gravely flawed.”

The 130-turbine Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, worth USD 2.6 billion (EUR 1.97bn), was proposed by US company Energy Management Inc. The wind farm has another PPA with UK utility National Grid (LON:NG) in Massachusetts. Construction of the wind park is expected to kick off next year, with commercial operations planned for the late summer of 2016.

At the start of July, the US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a USD-150-million loan guarantee for 101 of Cape Wind’s 130 turbines.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.759)

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