Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Deepwater Wind, the developer selected last week to build an offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, has won the bid to develop another major wind farm.

New Jersey officials this afternoon announced they had selected Garden State Offshore Energy, or GSOE, to build the 96-turbine project 16 miles off the New Jersey coast. GSOE is a joint venture of PSEG Renewable Generation, a utility company and Deepwater Wind, based in Hoboken, N.J.

Last week, Gov. Carcieri announced that his office had selected Deepwater Wind to build and finance a $1.5 billion wind farm, 15 to 20 miles off the coast of Rhode Island. It would be one of the largest private development projects ever constructed in the state.

This afternoon, Chris Brown, the chief executive officer of Deepwater, told The Providence Journal that winning New Jersey project will mean more jobs in Rhode Island, where the company plans to build its manufacturing headquarters for the East Coast.

The facility will be located at the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, the company said last week. The facility will be used to manufacture the structures to support the wind turbines, derrick-like structures called "jackets," and employ up to 800 people, Deepwater said.

Yesterday's award will mean even more jobs in Rhode Island, beyond the 800 already promised, Brown said in a telephone interview.

How many more?

Brown was reluctant to give an estimate. "That's going to be up to our planning people - significantly more," he said.

Gov. Carceri released a statement heralding the New Jersey development as being good news for Rhode Island.

"This is as much a win for Rhode Island as it is for Deepwater Wind," the governor said.

"By establishing ourselves as an early leader in off shore wind energy production and the center for jacket manufacturing, we gain an important competitive advantage in attracting alternative energy companies, including turbine manufacturers, to the state and in creating new high wage, green energy jobs across Rhode Island."

GSOE has proposed building a 345.6 MW offshore wind facility that would produce enough electricity to power approximately 125,000 homes annually. (Deepwater's Rhode Island project would be somewhat bigger with a capacity of 385 megawatts of electricity -- about three-quarters of the capacity of the natural-gas fired power plant at Dominion Energy's Manchester Street Station in Providence.)

The New Jersey project would cost about $1 billion, and would be financed privately.
It would be located southeast of Atlantic City, 16 miles off the New Jersey coast.

"At this distance," GSOE said in a statement, "the wind farm would be barely visible from shore, addressing one of the major concerns of beach communities."

The wind farm could begin generating energy in 2012 with the entire project operational in 2013.

A news release issued by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said the project would produce power at a cost of 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is substantially below current market prices for electricity. (Rhode Islanders currently pay 12.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.)

However, Janeen Lawlor, a spokeswoman for the board, said the BPU learned later that figure is not correct and was the product of a math error by the BPU staff. Lawlor said her office did not have the correct cost per kilowatt hour. She said the incorrect number was not used by the board during its evaluation process.

 Tags  new jersey rhode island

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DRYDOCK THE DEEPWATER CONTRACT said:

A news release issued by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said the project would produce power at a cost of 4.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is substantially below current market prices for electricity. (Rhode Islanders currently pay 12.4 cents per kilowatt-hour.)

However, Janeen Lawlor, a spokeswoman for the board, said the BPU learned later that figure is not correct and was the product of a math error by the BPU staff. Lawlor said her office did not have the correct cost per kilowatt hour. She said the incorrect number was not used by the board during its evaluation process.

According to this story on Reuters.com, "NJ BPU corrects to say project will produce power at market rates, not 4.3 cents a kilowatt-hour."
[http://uk.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUKN0334801220081003]

Oh, did we say 4.3 cents/kWh? We meant to say market rate. (Heehee.)

It is hard to swallow that the big news break stating that electricity would be produced at 4.3, well below the current RI market rate of 12.4, was a mere slip. You could hear the butt-slapping and attaboys all over RI, "Yay, this project is gonna cost us a FORTUNE, but look at how much our rates are gonna go DOWN!" NOT.

We have been had, even before the ink on the contract was dry. To this writer, a fraudulent statement as above is a good enough reason to put this contract in drydock.

Link | October 4, 2008 10:12 AM
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