LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]



Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Is Baker getting carried away with offshore wind? 

Credit:  Bruce Mohl | CommonWealth Magazine | May 31, 2018 | commonwealthmagazine.org ~~

Gov. Charlie Baker may have gotten a little carried away on Wednesday talking about the “terrific pricing” the state is going to get for offshore wind power.

“People are going to be really surprised, I think, because the argument has always been, ‘Well, renewable and clean energy sources are great but, jeez, they’re more expensive.’ I think people are going to be really surprised by what they see here,” Baker said during an “Ask the Governor” segment on WGBH radio. “We’re going to be able to significantly reduce our carbon footprint and at the same time give homeowners and businesses in Massachusetts terrific pricing.”

The governor’s comments seemed to imply that the price of electricity from the Vineyard Wind project selected last week under a state procurement would be competitive with existing forms of power generation. But that’s highly unlikely, unless analyst estimates are way off base. Prices for the electricity produced by Vineyard Wind are likely to be higher than electricity produced using natural gas and other fuels – just not as high as Baker and many other analysts had expected.

Indeed, if electricity produced from offshore wind farms was as cheap as electricity produced using other fuels, there would have been no need to hold a special procurement for offshore wind. The companies could have just built their wind farms and competed in the region’s wholesale market just like any other power producer. The special procurement was set up to secure the development of a clean, renewable source of energy with the potential to spur the creation of a major new industry.
Most analysts believe electricity generated by offshore wind farms will be more expensive, at least initially. The US Energy Information Administration does an annual assessment of the cost of producing electricity from various fuels and offshore wind was the most expensive in its March report.

A University of Delaware study released in March 2016 surprised nearly everyone by predicting electricity produced from wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts would fall from 16.2 cents a kilowatt hour to 10.8 cents over the 10-year period from 2020 to 2030. Those price estimates were well below what Cape Wind would have charged if it had been built (24 cents a kilowatt hour on a 20-year levelized basis) and significantly less than what the small Deepwater Wind wind farm off the coast of Block Island is charging (30 cents a kilowatt hour) for its electricity.

Dan Dolan, the president of the New England Power Generators Association, said the average wholesale price of electricity in New England in 2017 was 3.4 cents a kilowatt hour. “So even if Vineyard Wind comes in at 8 to 10 cents a kilowatt hour, we’re still talking two or three times the average wholesale electric price,” he said.

Baker has been very skeptical about offshore wind in the past. In his first run for governor in 2010, he opposed Cape Wind as a sweetheart deal for its developer. But over time his opposition has softened and now it appears he has become a full-fledged supporter of offshore wind.

Baker is not alone in his enthusiasm. Matthew Beaton, his secretary of energy and environmental affairs, has said the price being negotiated by the state’s utilities with Vineyard Wind will be attractive. And each of the companies that bid in the offshore wind procurement promised that their price would be very competitive.

Deepwater Wind, one of the bidders, even submitted a bid in a separate, broader clean energy procurement that was eventually won by a company planning to import hydroelectricity from Quebec. Deepwater Wind didn’t win that procurement, but it was surprising to many that the company even thought it had a chance.

Source:  Bruce Mohl | CommonWealth Magazine | May 31, 2018 | commonwealthmagazine.org

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon