BRAVO!
In case you missed Walter Brooks' article:
Cape Wind secures $600 million loan
Similar arrays of turbines may weaken hurricanes
In line to be America's first offshore wind farm.
In line to become America's first offshore wind farm
Similar array of turbines may weaken hurricanes
Earlier today, during his remarks this morning at the GreenPower USA Offshore Wind Conference in Boston, Cape Wind President Jim Gordon announced that EKF, the Danish Export Credit Agency, has informed Cape Wind that it has board approval for a $600 million loan to help finance Cape Wind pending the finalization of due diligence and completion of loan documentation.Gordon said, “EKF is a very knowledgeable and experienced investor in the offshore wind industry and they recognize that Cape Wind makes sense both economically and environmentally. Moving Cape Wind forward will help further diversify New England’s electric generation portfolio.”
Construction to begin next year
He added that construction will begin in 2015 and finish sometime in 2016.
Gordon and other speakers at the conference made the case that the price of clean energy from Cape Wind is competitive in a region becoming over-dependent on natural gas and losing many of its coal-fired power plants.
Gordon noted that Cape Wind’s price of approximately 19 cents a kilowatt hour compares favorably with the 23.7 cent market price of electricity on Wednesday.EKF was established in 1922 as one of the world’s first Export Credit Agencies and has participated in the financing of several offshore wind projects.
In December Cape Wind finalized a deal with German conglomerate Siemens AG to purchase giant turbines for the project, which will place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound.
Cape Wind received a $200 million investment from a Danish pension fund last year, and the project is eligible for a $500 million U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee as well.
Turbine arrays will weaken hurricane damages
Coincidentally, a new study published today in the journal Nature says that large arrays of wind turbine would weaken hurricanes as they approached land.
The report goes on to says that the net cost of turbine arrays is estimated to be less than today’s fossil fuel electricity generation net cost in these regions and less than the net cost of sea walls used solely to avoid storm surge damage.
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