In a game-changing move for the financing of offshore wind farms across the United States, National Grid has agreed to buy power from the Cape Wind project after a nine year court struggle. The announcement comes in a period of success for the project, falling one week after the federal government officially approved of the project over the defiance of some Cape residents. Under the new 15 year PPA agreement, the UK based National Grid would begin purchasing up to one half of the total generated kilowatt hours starting in 2013 for the sum of 20.7 cents per every kilowatt hour.

The deal is estimated to raise the average cost of National Grid’s electricity customers by approximately 2 percent in the coming years after the launch of the wind farm , however, in the long run experts say that the consistency of wind power as an alternative power source would keep rates under control, especially if the prices for oil and natural gas skyrocket. The additional 2 percent increase would add about $1.59 to every 500 kwh. Recently however, these statistics have been disputed by the Alliance for the protection of Nantucket Sound, longtime opponent of the Cape Wind project, have recently argued that rates for consumers would increase by 442 million over the next 15 years. Cape Wind’s Mark Rogers fired back when he told Reuters, “I have no idea where they [The Alliance] are getting their numbers from—maybe they are assuming there will be no fossil fuel price increases. Their predictions about rate increases lack credibility.”

The opposition to the project has now begun to seek legal measures to prevent the construction of the wind farm, piling up a stack of lawsuits supported by a variety of different organizations from the Earth Land Institute to the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe; the Pocasett Wampanoag recently spoke out in favor of the project. However, in a recent meeting with Siemens Energy, President Obama told workers in a blade manufacturing plant that his administration’s investments in clean energy would be the largest in US history. “One study suggests that if we pursue our full potential for wind energy, and everything else goes right, wind could generate as much as 20 percent of America’s electricity 20 years from now.”