4 new offshore wind power projects proposed for New Jersey Shore; 2 would be far out to sea - CBS Philly
4 new offshore wind power projects proposed for New Jersey Shore; 2 would be far out to sea - CBS Philadelphia
4 new offshore wind power projects proposed for New Jersey Shore; 2 would be far out to sea
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- Wind power developers proposed four new projects off the New Jersey Shore on Friday, a surge that would more than double the number of wind farms built off its coast if they are approved by regulators.
At least two of them are more than twice as far out to sea than others that have drawn the ire of residents who don't want to see windmills on the horizon. These two would not be visible from the beach, the companies proposing them say.
They would join three wind farms already approved by New Jersey regulators as the state races to become the East Coast capital of the fast-growing offshore wind industry.
In the first project to be made public Friday by the companies proposing it, Essen, Germany-based RWE and New York-based National Grid applied for permission to build a wind farm in the waters off Long Beach Island. Their joint venture is called Community Offshore Wind, and it aims to generate enough electricity to power 500,000 homes.
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Unlike other projects that have drawn intense opposition from homeowners in part because they are close enough to the Atlantic City and Ocean City shorelines to be seen by beachgoers, this project would be built 37 miles (59 kilometers) offshore and would not be visible from the shore, said Doug Perkins, president and project director of Community Offshore Wind.
He said the project has "the potential to transform New Jersey into a nation-leading clean energy development, training and manufacturing hub." He said his company is the second-largest wind power developer globally, following Danish wind developer Orsted.
Community Offshore said it has not yet determined how many wind turbines would be built as part of the project.
The second bid was submitted by Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE for a project 40 miles (64 kilometers) off Long Beach Island called Leading Light Wind. It would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.
The company is playing up its American ownership as the foreign ownership of key players in New Jersey's offshore wind industry has generated opposition in some quarters.
"Leading Light Wind is ready to build out a world-leading domestic offshore wind industry with American-led ingenuity and expertise," said Ryan Brown, energyRE's chief operating officer.
And the two companies that received approval to build the Atlantic Shores wind farm — Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America — submitted a bid to build a second as yet unnamed project 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) offshore. The companies have lease areas in the large expanse of ocean between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light on the northern tip of Long Beach Island, but they did not specify exactly where the second project would be built.
They also did not say how many turbines it would include or how many homes its electricity could power.
Friday night, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said a fourth application had also been received, but would not release any information about it. The company or companies proposing it had not come forward publicly to discuss their plans.
Community Offshore and Leading Light said that while they plan to take advantage of existing federal tax credits, they will not seek the same sort of tax break that New Jersey recently approved for Orsted, which is being challenged in a lawsuit brought by opponents of offshore wind.
Atlantic Shores, which earlier this year indicated it wanted similar tax relief to that given Orsted, said Friday it is not asking for anything specific from state government but is in talks with the governor's office, the utilities board and the Legislature about what might be possible.
The proposals unveiled Friday come in addition to the three projects already approved by New Jersey regulators. Orsted is building two wind farms, called Ocean Wind I and II. And Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America are partnering on the Atlantic Shores project.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.