Washington - US interior secretary Ken Salazar says he is optimistic that the first offshore wind farm in the US will break ground this year after more than a decade of delays.
Salazar said in an interview with The Associated Press that he thinks "there is a good chance it will happen before the end of the year," because its developers have agreements for utilities to purchase about 75% of the power the project in the state of Massachusetts expects to generate.
Developers of the $2.6bn wind farm off Cape Cod have been working on the project since 2001.
Salazar said the delays and lawsuits illustrate the difficulty of developing new energy sources. But he said regulatory improvements made in recent years should allow other offshore projects to follow more quickly.