OCEAN WIND BENEFITS BEGIN

Cape Wind lures business to Mass.; Patrick says at least 100 manufacturing jobs to follow
Beth Daley, October 13, 2010 (Boston Globe)

"Enormous steel pilings that Cape Wind’s 130 proposed wind turbines would sit upon will be manufactured locally, creating more than 100 jobs…[Massachusetts’] Mass Tank Sales Corporation is partnering with EEW Group of Germany, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of offshore wind structural parts, to open a facility that could also serve other offshore wind projects now under development along the East Coast…

"…[T]he facility will be the first manufacturing plant directly related to Cape Wind and comes as the project navigates its final regulatory hurdles after almost 10 years of review. The state Department of Public Utilities is examining a controversial contract between National Grid and Cape Wind for the purchase of 50 percent of the park’s power to see if it is a good deal for electricity customers…[T]he federal government awarded Cape Wind the nation’s first offshore wind lease in federal waters."

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"The two companies will partner to build 400-ton steel foundations 17 feet in diameter and 180-220 feet long, which will be driven into the seabed and serve as the supports for the turbines. Each takes about a week and a half to construct. More than 50,000 tons of steel will be needed – representing the largest order of steel in the United States in a decade…

"…[T]he partnership is not only for Cape Wind – and it could ultimately result in as many as 350 jobs as the US offshore wind industry grows. Yet there is likely to be a gap of several or more years between Cape Wind’s construction and other East Coast offshore wind projects. In that time, the new facility may ship the pilings overseas as well as try to find domestic contracts for steel pipes with the U.S. offshore oil and gas industry…"