The Cape Wind project has received two positive jolts in recent weeks.

First came the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision upholding a long-term power agreement for National Grid to purchase half of Cape Wind’s 454 megawatts of wind power for at least 15 years.

Yesterday the second came – Massachusetts regulators gave final approval to a merger between NStar and Northeast Utilities, which includes a commitment by NStar to buy slightly more than a quarter of Cape Wind’s project’s electricity for 15 years.

With these key contracts in place, Cape Wind can secure the financing it needs to begin construction next year. After a tortuous decade-long journey, the project’s football-field sized wind turbines will start producing electricity as early as 2015. That’s an enormous breakthrough for homegrown renewable energy powering the Massachusetts and New England economies.

Click here to read this Ceres blog by Joseph M. Kwasnik