Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting for Grid Competitive Economics
At a recent conference, I had the chance to talk with a prospective developer of offshore wind projects in Massachusetts and New Jersey, two states with excellent resource, growing renewable energy requirements (from state legislation), and among the highest electricity prices in the United States. The developer believes the most modern offshore wind offerings, probably European (or, possibly, Chinese) technology, at 6-10 megawatts per turbine, is not economic without subsidies (the current wind subsidy program expires at the end of 2012), and won’t be for a decade or more. This compares with onshore wind, generally economic today (ex resource intermittency), and the proposed Cape Wind project which, at 3 MW/turbine, appears to have no chance of economic viability, even on today’s subsidies, without premium pricing or further subsidies.