GOOGLE OCEAN WIRES GET PRICED

Google-Backed $5 Billion Offshore Wind Project Wins Reduced U.S. Rate
Brian Wingfield, May 19, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"A Google Inc.-backed project to build a $5 billion undersea power line carrying wind energy between Virginia and New York won…approval [from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)] for a 12.59 percent profit, less than [the 13.58 percent guaranteed return] requested by developers [Atlantic Wind Connection]…

"…[FERC] approval of incentives for Atlantic Wind [is conditional on the project being accepted as part of]…a transmission expansion plan under consideration by regional electric-grid operator PJM Interconnection LLC…Atlantic Wind is also awaiting a U.S. Interior Department permit to build the line on the seabed…"

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"…[The project also] would need approval from New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland regulators for its first phase of development, Markian Melnyk, president of Atlantic Grid Development LLC, the project’s developer, said…Expansions, which may be complete by 2021, would need approval from regulators in Virginia and New York.

"…Investors in Atlantic Wind Connection [besides Google] include Tokyo-based trading company Marubeni Corp. and Good Energies, a clean-energy investment firm…The Maryland Public Service Commission and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association were among groups questioning whether Atlantic Wind’s requested incentives to build the project were too high, according to regulatory filings this year."