Cape Wind Farm Will Reduce Regional Electricity Prices by $4.6 Billion

The report found that Cape Wind will place downward pressure on the wholesale clearing price of electricity by reducing operations of higher priced and polluting fossil fueled units. This will result in average savings of $185 million per year in New England. Cape Wind is proposing 130 offshore wind turbines.

“This report makes it very clear, Cape Wind will provide good long term value to electric consumers,” said Cape Wind President Jim Gordon. “By reducing operations of higher priced fossil fuel units, Cape Wind farm will reduce regional electric prices, reduce pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions while increasing our energy independence,” Gordon added.

The wind power project will also create 600-1,000 clean energy construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs as it becomes America’s first offshore wind farm. Cape Wind has been undergoing a comprehensive review by 17 Federal and State agencies over the past eight years with each succeeding environmental report giving it a very positive review.

“No one knows how high the price of natural gas and oil will go in the next 25 years but we do know that the price of wind energy will remain zero,” Gordon added. “A barrel of oil skyrocketed to $140 twenty months ago, then went down to $40 and has now almost doubled again, hovering around $75. Natural gas and coal prices have also been volatile which creates a lot of uncertainty in a consumer’s electric bill. Cape Wind will provide significant help for electric consumers by stabilizing energy prices.”

The Charles River Associates report is entitled, ‘Analysis of the Impact of Cape Wind on New England Energy Prices’, and was commissioned by Cape Wind.

The full report can be downloaded from Cape Wind’s website by clicking here:
capewind.org/downloads/Final%20Cape%20Wind%20Report%20%202-8-2010.pdf

Charles River Associates (CRA) has conducted an analysis of the impact of the Cape Wind project on the ISO New England wholesale electricity market. Cape Wind, a 468 MW offshore wind power project planned for Nantucket Sound, is expected to provide enough power to supply approximately 10 percent of projected 2013 demand in Southeastern Massachusetts and just over 1 percent of total projected 2013 New England demand.

This additional supply will reduce the need for generation from other power plants with higher pollutant emissions and operating costs, primarily fueled by natural gas, oil, and coal. CRA has projected wholesale power prices over the period 2013-2037, for scenarios with and without Cape Wind in service, and quantified the expected reduction in wholesale power prices and wholesale electricity costs that would result from the power supplied by the project.

The principal findings of the analysis are:
•Adding Cape Wind would lead to a reduction in the wholesale cost of power averaging $185 million annually over the 2013-2037 time period, resulting in an aggregate savings of $4.6 billion over 25 years.
•With Cape Wind in service, over the 2013-2037 time period, the price of power in the New England wholesale market would be $1.22/MWh lower on average.

Cape Wind’s proposal to build America’s first offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal would provide most of the electricity used on Cape Cod and the Islands from clean, renewable energy – reducing this region’s need to import oil, coal and gas. Cape Wind will create new jobs, help stabilize electric costs, contribute to a healthier environment, increase energy independence and establish Massachusetts as a leader in offshore wind power. 

www.capewind.org