Green Energy Reporter

For seven years, Cape Wind, a Boston-based developer, worked hard to convince Massachusetts regulators and lawmakers, as well as communities up and down Cape Cod, to let it develop a massive offshore wind power project, able to produce enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. The company rolled out an all out public relations battle to convince the mosaic of stakeholders to let it build its project, including local residents, many of whom argued that the farm’s towering turbines would be an eyesore.

On Thursday, Cape Wind’s efforts paid off as the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Citing Board approved the project, which is expected to cost $1 billion to build and is now awaiting for federal approval. A company spokesperson says that could happen in six months.

Ken Salzar, the U.S. Interior Secretary, whose department will sign off on the Cape Wind project, has been actively talking up the country’s offshore potential, even arguing that if fully developed, the wind capacity of the U.S. East Coast could generate 1,000 gigawatts (1 million megawatts) of clean electricity. That, he said, would be enough to replace most of the country’s coal-burning power, which currently generates more than half of the country’s electricity.

With the regulatory process nearing an end, Cape Wind now intends to focus on harnessing power purchase agreements and securing funding to support project construction, which in this economic environment, the company concedes, will be a “challenge”.

A report released this week by the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) confirmed the challenging funding situation, saying clean tech investments were down 40% in 2009. In a stark warning, the agency said that if it continued the lack of capital could slow down efforts to curb CO2 emissions.

Investments are still being made, albeit not at the levels reached in 2007 and 2008. Brooklyn-based OwnEnergy expanded its Series A funding by an undisclosed amount, with the addition of two new financial backers: Clearpoint Ventures and GoGreen Capital. On Wednesday, EverGreen Solar, the Marlboro, Massachusetts-based maker of solar silicon wafers began the issuance of $60 million in common stocks to finance its growth. The company says it plans to use the proceeds to build a new solar wafer plant in China and expand its Michigan production facility.

Clean tech investments will likely pick up once the massive Waxman-Markey climate change bill is implemented, including its much debated cap-and-trade provision, which could raise as much as $640 billion, a chunk of which will fund clean energy projects.

The bill, after months of hearing and four grueling days of debate, was approved by the Energy and Commerce Committee and is now scheduled for a debate on the House floor this summer. The vote was largely partisan, some of the bill’s targets were twea`ked — 15% CO2 cuts by 2020 compared to an initial 20% in the original draft — but now, the U.S. finds itself a step closer to getting a comprehensive and ambitious climate change bill.