The company behind a proposed $220 million wind farm off Block Island may need to start construction later than initially planned because of a court case involving the farm.
Deepwater Wind Chief Development Officer Paul Rich said last week that one of the contingency plans under review would start construction in 2013. The company has previously said that it wanted the farm online by the end of 2012 when federal tax credits worth millions of dollars are set to expire.
“We’ve got several different plans we will continue to massage,” Rich said.
The Watertown Daily Times, a New York paper that interviewed Deepwater CEO William Moore, on Jan. 24 reported the farm’s construction could be delayed until 2013.
In an interview with PBN, Rich said the company lacks a firm start date. Construction will depend largely on how quickly a R.I. Supreme Court case is resolved. Plaintiffs in the case are questioning the R.I. Public Utilities Commission’s approval of a contract for Deepwater to sell electricity to National Grid.
Rich said the case has not yet jeopardized the project; however, the Providence-based company must set a construction start date in the later half of the year to secure the equipment required for the farm.
Deepwater, Rich said, is also hopeful Congress will extend the federal tax credits. Moore told PBN last March that the credits would be worth $56.5 million to the company.
“Traditionally those tax credits have been reinstated, even retroactively,” Rich said. •
Is anyone surprised out there in la-la land that this project has been delayed? This politically charged venue will never happen and it shouldn’t. Any Company that has to rely on federal tax credits to insure viability reveals a significant deficiency. They have no capital of there own to embark on a project this size without these tax credits. And why would any company move its corporate headquarters to the financially troubled City Of Providence? The bottom line is this company has never been asked by the EDC to produce from there lenders any type of commitment letters of having secured financing even with the tax credits in place. Another former Governor Carcieri supported experiment that will implode. I would like to know the cost to RI taxpayers to vet this high profile project. I’am sure somewhere in the equation ia a well paid consultant telling us what a great economic development project this is for RI.