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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

FAA Gives Cape Wind Green Light

05/18/2010
Nine years since the project was launched, the federal government has given its final approval on the first offshore wind farm to be built in the U.S.

The Federal Aviation Administration signed off on the Cape Wind project yesterday after imposing stipulations that a digital radar system be put in place as a backup plan for air traffic safety and is requiring the wind farm developers to pay $1.5 million for a radar system change.

Opponents to the Cape Cod, Massachusetts wind farm promise to continue battling to stop the project, citing that the 440-foot-tall wind turbines present a danger to air traffic in the area of the farm.

"The is an entirely political decision that flies in the face of public safety and the recommendations of the pilots who use this airspace every day,'' said Audra Parker, president and chief executive of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, the main opposition group, in a Boston.com  article.

Cape Wind, the first offshore wind farm in the US to win regulatory approval, announced last week it already has a buyer for half of the electricity it will generate.

National Grid has signed a power purchase agreement with Cape Wind Associates, the project's developers, less than 10 days after Cape Wind won regulatory approval to construct 130 turbines off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

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