Change is blowing for wind power industry

John W. Schoen Senior Producer • Profile • E-mail

Even with oil prices marching toward $70 a barrel, most alternative energy sources require heavy federal subsidies to allow producers to turn a profit. Wind power, though it still enjoys subsidies, is one of the few that is becoming economically competitive in its own right -- thanks to rising electric power costs in many parts of the world and technological advances in the design and manufacture of wind turbines.

As a result, total wind power generation capacity in the U.S. is expected to grow by about a third this year. But developers of wind power have begun to confront other barriers to the production this relatively cheap, clean renewable energy source.

Take the case of Jim Gordon, a private developer whose company, Cape Wind, has proposed building one of the largest and most ambitious wind projects in the U.S. -- the first offshore wind farm in the country. After four years of design and planning, Cape Wind is well on its way to building an $800 million, 420-megawatt, 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound offshore Cape Cod, Mass. The company says the project will supply about three-fourths of the power needed for Cape Code, eliminating about 4,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, about 1,000 tons of nitrous oxides, and about a million tons of greenhouse gases. The company has completed detailed engineering studies for the project. A 3,800-page Environmental Impact Statement, involving three years of study and 17 federal and state agencies, is awaiting final approval from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

If approved by the Army, the project still faces one major hurdle. The neighbors don’t like the way it looks.

“People come to Cape Cod for natural beauty and the unspoiled horizon, and they’re not going to go there to see a power plant off the beaches,” said Audra Parker, assistant director of the Alliance to Save Our Sound, which has mounted a campaign to stop the project. “Our argument is that a lot of people do have an objection to the hard cost impact on property values.”

The Alliance is a well-organized, well-funded group of local residents who have been working to stop the Cape Wind project since it was first proposed. It has organized opposition through public meetings, newsletters, press releases and challenges to rulings by various state and federal agencies in favor of the project. 

Gordon has defended the project with his own Web site and press releases as he continues to grind through the lengthy permitting process with state and federal agencies. He’s also working hard to counter the objections raised by the Alliance.

“These are unfounded fears from very wealthy waterfront homeowners who believe that Cape Wind will impact their quality of life,” he said. 

The four years of civic war over the project has left the locals divided. A poll conducted in May found that, of those aware of the project, 39 percent opposed it while 37 percent supported it – a dead heat when accounting for the poll’s margin of error. Some 24 percent haven’t made up their minds.

If built, Cape Wind would be the largest offshore wind farm in the U.S. -– and could well provide a roadmap for other large-scale projects of its kind. Officials in New Jersey are reviewing several proposals for offshore wind farms along the Jersey shore. The Long Island Power Authority wants to install 40 turbines more than 3 miles offshore Jones Beach on Long Island.

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