Interview with Jim Gordon, president of Cape Wind Associates.
Jay S. Polachek is managing editor of Public Utilities Fortnightly.
Jim Gordon knows energy. For the last 26 years, he's been an energy plant developer. He was the head of a New England-based power producer named Energy Management Inc., and now he's president of Cape Wind Associates. He's also an environmentalist. He believes in the benefits of clean energy, and his latest project-a 460 MW wind farm off the coast off Cape Cod is a testament to that. The wind farm, slated to go online sometime in 2005, is the first offshore wind farm proposed in the United States. It's a bold move, but one Gordon believes is vital to the stability of the New England energy situation over the next 20 years.
We recently sat down with Gordon and asked him to give us his thoughts on the Cape Wind project.
Fortnightly: Why wind? With so many different renewable options available today, why choose wind? Why not fuel cells? Or wave technology?
JG: Having been in the energy business for the last 26 years, I've seen the evolution in different technologies that generate electricity. A year or so ago, I decided to divest our natural gas plants, and go into renewables. Wind is the most economically viable renewable technology available today. Wind turbine technology has made quantum leaps in the areas of effectiveness and reliability. Cost was another factor. The fact that turbines are now being mass-produced makes them affordable. The final reason was because of the superior environmental characteristics of wind versus other electric generating technologies.
Fortnightly: And if there's no wind?