Cape Wind may be dead, but the offshore wind industry in Massachusetts is just starting to spring to life.

Cape Wind Associates last week dropped longstanding plans for a 130-turbine wind farm in the middle of Nantucket Sound, and terminated its lease agreement with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Cape Cod Times reported on Friday.

Cape Wind had been opposed since 2001 by property owners, Native American tribes, commercial fishermen, shippers, local officials, and others. Opponents included the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and billionaire Bill Koch, who helped bankroll the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound's legal fight.

Unlike Cape Wind, three new proposed offshore wind farms would not be visible from Cape Cod or the Islands. The turbines are planned for an area 15-20 miles off Martha's Vineyard, and 30 miles from the Massachusetts mainland. So far, the projects have not encountered organized opposition.

Deepwater Wind, Baystate Wind, and Vineyard Wind are now putting the final touches on bid documents that are due with state regulators Dec. 20. The firms are competing for lucrative contracts to supply electricity to Massachusetts utilities Eversource, National Grid, and Unitil. The three firms secured their federal offshore wind area leases in 2012 and 2015.

A 2016 Massachusetts state law requires the state's utilities to purchase 1,600 megawatts of power from offshore wind -- but the law was structured to exclude Cape Wind from bidding. The utility contracts will supply reliable project financing.

Vineyard Wind is jointly owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables. Deepwater Wind is led by CEO Jeff Grybowski and backed by a private equity firm. Baystate Wind is a partnership between Eversource Energy and Orsted, the Danish firm formerly known as DONG Energy.

Cape Wind took a serious blow in 2015 when Eversource and National Grid cut their agreement to buy power from the turbines. The project, worn down over time, was denied permission to build a transmission line in 2016, and had let some of its permits lapse.

"Over 50 lawsuits were filed by opponents, led by Bill Koch," Jack Clarke, director of public policy for the Massachusetts Audubon Society, told the Cape Cod Times. "Cape Wind prevailed on all of them and had all their permits. They just couldn't financially keep it going."

In 2016, the state's Energy Facilities Siting Board declined to extend permits for the project, and Cape Wind didn't appeal. Nevertheless, Cape Wind, seemingly on life support, continued to make its $88,278 federal lease payments.

The Cape Wind lease, issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior in November 2010, is valid until 2041. Project foes said it's possible the company still wants to sell its lease rights to another developer.

While Cape Wind wanted to be the nation's first offshore wind farm, that honor went to Block Island Wind Farm, a functioning five-turbine project built in Rhode Island waters by Deepwater Wind.