The state’s highest court gave the green light yesterday to a controversial offshore wind farm’s agreement to sell half its energy to a utility, and the president of the Cape Wind project said he hoped construction could begin in about a year.
“Today is a really big day for Cape Wind, but it’s an even bigger day for clean energy in Massachusetts,’’ said Jim Gordon, whose company plans to build 130 wind turbines in Nantucket Sound. “This moves the project forward.’’
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision to uphold a power-purchase deal between Cape Wind and National Grid assures a market for Cape Wind’s power for its first 15 years of operation. That purchase deal had been approved by the state Department of Public Utilities in November 2010, but was challenged by four groups, including the nonprofit Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound. Among the contentions: that the utility improperly had limited its search for renewable energy sources within Massachusetts and that the deal was neither cost-effective nor in the public interest.
But in a 34-page ruling written by Justice Margot Botsford, the high court unanimously rejected every argument advanced by critics. Botsford called the DPU review of the agreement between Cape Wind and National Grid thorough and considered and upheld the department’s decision.
Bob Grace, an energy consultant at Sustainable Energy Advantage, a Framingham energy consulting firm not involved in the project, said that while the court’s decision was critical for Cape Wind, it does not ensure the project will be built.
“I think this was maybe the alliance’s best hope at derailing the project, or their next best hope,’’ Grace said. “From Cape Wind’s perspective, this is necessary but not sufficient to move forward. They need to still find buyers for the rest of their [energy] output,’’ which will help the company secure investors to finance the project.
Opponents of the project were undeterred. Audra Parker, president of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, said the decision was disappointing but the organization was not giving up.
“We will continue to fight Cape Wind until it’s totally defeated,’’ Parker said.
The DPU’s 2010 approval of the contract between Cape Wind and National Grid was a milestone in the project’s ability to raise the money needed to start construction. Under the deal, National Grid agreed to buy half the power generated by the wind farm over 15 years, at a starting price of 18.7 cents per kilowatt-hour that would increase by 3.5 percent each year.
