http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/articles/i/5592/?cid=3

US offshore wind development Cape Wind has reached another major milestone with the securing of a second power purchase agreement (PPA).

Cape Wind's second deal for a 15-year power purchase agreement with NSTAR will cover 27.5% of the offshore wind farm's renewable energy output and renewable energy credits.

The agreement, which has been approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, adds to the deal with National Grid to purchase 50% of Cape Wind's output.

The two PPAs covering over three-quarters of the wind farm's production constitute a critical mass to enable the project to secure further financing, says the wind farm's financial advisor, managing director of Barclays, Theodore Roosevelt IV.

"This approval of our PPA with NSTAR will further help Cape Wind secure financing and deliver all of the public benefits this important project will provide," adds Cape Wind president Jim Gordon. "With this decision, Massachusetts electric consumers have secured an abundant, inexhaustible, and clean energy resource that provides price stability and avoids all of the external costs of fossil fuels."

The project is now moving ahead - after a ten-year sojourn in the planning wilderness - to start construction next year and be fully commissioned in 2016.