Cape Wind continues to push forward, having entered into a lease agreement with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to stage its offshore wind project out of the South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal. The 468 MW offshore wind farm is planned off the Massachusetts coast in Nantucket Sound.
Gov. Deval Patrick, D-Mass, joined Cape Wind President Jim Gordon in announcing the lease.
‘With this agreement and with the investments we have made in infrastructure like the South Coast Marine Commerce Terminal, we have positioned Massachusetts as a first-in-the-nation hub for a new offshore wind industry that will bring jobs and a clean source of Massachusetts-made energy for future generations,’ said Patrick.
The Patrick administration says the terminal, located in New Bedford Harbor, has been specifically designed to handle the heavy loads associated with the staging of offshore wind projects. The two-year lease agreement calls for Cape Wind to pay MassCEC $4.5 million in rent for use of the 28-acre facility. Construction of the terminal started in April 2013, with completion slated for this December. MassCEC expects Cape Wind to begin operations at the terminal in January 2015, and terms of the lease include an option for two one-year extensions.
Cape Wind recently announced it will file a request for modification of its construction and operations plan with U.S. regulators.
‘I am pleased that Cape Wind is notifying the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management that we would like to use New Bedford as a staging and assembly port and that we have signed a lease with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to use this new facility,’ said Gordon. ‘Cape Wind hopes to be the first of many offshore wind projects that will operate out of New Bedford, creating jobs and economic development and once again [making] New Bedford an energy capital of the world.’
