Wind farm brings controversy (Boston)

One of the most intensely watched, fiercely debated and most significant land-use projects isn’t even happening on land.

Cape Wind, Jim Gordon’s proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound, has had to get past significant opposition, including from high-powered homeowners on the Cape and Islands and the Wampanoag tribe, in addition to the regular regulatory requirements that go with any sort of large-scale development. And it still faces more ahead before actual construction can begin.

Efforts to reach Gordon were unsuccessful but he has acknowledged both the significance of his project — it will create up to a thousand jobs in assembly and ocean construction and 150 permanent jobs — and the challenges in the past.

“This is a project that’s died a thousand deaths, but I honestly believe it’s a game changer and that based on the fact that the Department of Energy and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative studies show there are thousands of megawatts of power offshore, that offshore wind is going to be providing a major part of our energy future,” Gordon said in a past interview with the BBJ.

The long, difficult road faced by Gordon and Cape Wind as it pushes forward with its plans for 130 wind turbines off the coast is likely just the first of what’s ahead for other developers.

Read the full story in the Boston Business Journal.