Energy News for week ending June 1, 2018

Carried Away | Footprint online | Investing in offshore wind

Happy Friday afternoon.

This week, Bruce Mohl at CommonWealth Magazine thinks Massachusetts’ Governor Charlie Baker “may have gotten a little carried away on Wednesday talking about the “terrific pricing” the state is going to get for offshore wind power…The governor’s comments seemed to imply that the price of electricity from the Vineyard Wind project selected last week under a state procurement would be competitive with existing forms of power generation. But that’s highly unlikely, unless analyst estimates are way off base. Prices for the electricity produced by Vineyard Wind are likely to be higher than electricity produced using natural gas and other fuels – just not as high as Baker and many other analysts had expected.”

After delays, the Salem News reported on Thursday that “Salem Harbor Footprint has officially flipped the switch. The $1 billion natural gas-burning power plant on Derby Street and Fort Avenue went online overnight. ‘Beginning at midnight, we’ll be in operation and providing power to Salem, the North Shore and the region,’ said Scott Silverstein, chief operating officer of Footprint Power, which runs the plant. The plant has been providing power to the grid off and on through a series of tests over the last several months. And while there’s still some work to be done at the site, Silverstein said the plant is ready to be fully operational. ISO-New England, the independent organization that oversees the region’s electric grid, was notified of the change on Wednesday.”

Investments in the offshore wind industry in New England continue. Hartford Business reports that $15 million in funding to repair and improve State Pier in New London was approved today. “Gov. Dannel Malloy’s office said Tuesday that the funding would allow the pier to compete with other ports to be used as a staging area by companies that have proposed seven offshore wind farms on the Northeast’s Atlantic coast. That includes an 800-megawatt proposal that’s moving forward in Massachusetts.” And in Rhode Island, the Providence Journal reports that “Deepwater Wind will invest $250 million in Rhode Island and use a local workforce of more than 800 to build a utility-scale offshore wind farm that would be able to meet the electric needs of 200,000 households in the state, CEO Jeffrey Grybowski and Governor Gina Raimondo announced Wednesday morning. The investment by the Providence-based company will include $40 million in improvements to the Port of Providence, the port facilities in the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown and potentially one or more other ports in Rhode Island, where Deepwater would stage construction of the 400-megawatt project that is being called Revolution Wind.”

As always you can find more news and events at Northeast Energy News. Have a great weekend.

Natural Gas/Oil/Pipeline/Drilling

New Jersey is leading the resistance to offshore drilling, Stamford Advocate

Judge Shuts Down Work on Sunoco Pipelines, Cites Danger, US News & World Report

Canada to Buy Kinder Morgan Pipeline for $3.5 Billion, The Wall Street Journal

Renewables/Climate Change/RGGI

Vermont coffee roaster produces ‘green’ beans, WPTZ Burlington

Dan Haar: Fuel cell makers hoping state ends drought, Stamford Advocate

Statewide climate funds tilted toward Long Island, power plant owners, study claims, Albany Times Union

Ben & Jerry’s Bets On Blockchain To Cancel Out The Carbon In Every Scoop, Forbes

Environmentalists: Biomass bill bad for RI, The Pendulum

Boston’s Cardinal O’Malley leading effort to go green, Aleteia EN