Cape Wind ending Quonset lease option
By Eli Sherman, PBN Staff Writer | 1/16/15 | pbn.com
NORTH KINGSTOWN – Sources confirmed Friday that Cape Wind Associates LLC has ended payments and an existing lease agreement option with Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown.
Ending the agreement option marks another sign of an ailing wind farm company, as Cape Wind took a major blow earlier this month after losing two significant electricity contracts.
Stephen J. King, Quonset Business Park managing director, confirmed Friday afternoon that Cape Wind would no longer continue its option agreement.
A Cape Wind spokesperson declined comment.
The lease agreement option began Sept. 1, around the same time Cape Wind signed a lease agreement with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to use an industrial terminal in New Bedford for staging and assembly of its 130-turbine wind project slated for Nantucket Sound.
The Quonset agreement gave Cape Wind the option to build on two pieces of property in North Kingstown if there was spillover from its operations in New Bedford. Cape Wind also reserved the right to renew the contract for up to three years and three months.
A MassCEC spokeswoman said earlier this week that its two-year, $4.5 million lease agreement with Cape Wind for the New Bedford terminal remained intact.
The offshore wind farm project has been under development for about 13 years.
National Grid PLC and Northeast Utilities – parent company of Nstar – terminated existing electricity contracts with Cape Wind after it missed contractual milestones on Dec. 31.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/01/16/cape-wind-ending-quonset-lease-option/