By Nikita Biryukov
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities unanimously approved two bids to create wind energy farms off the state’s coast, renewing Gov. Phil Murphy’s clean energy efforts three months after Danish wind giant Ørsted pulled out of a separate project.
The board unanimously approved offers on Wednesday from Leading Light Wind, a partnership between Invenergy and energyRe, and the Attentive Energy Two projects helmed by French firm TotalEnergies and Danish company Corio Generation.
The Leading Light Wind project is expected to generate up to 2,400 megawatts, while the Attentive Energy project is expected to bring up to 1,342 megawatts.
“In spite of some setbacks, we’re on track. If anything, this solicitation award shows that we’re moving full steam ahead,” said BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy. “These two projects will help cement New Jersey’s position as an offshore wind leader and bring clean energy and economic benefits to our state.”
The board rejected two other bids it received in its third round of wind energy solicitations.
The Leading Light Project is the largest offshore wind farm approved so far by New Jersey regulators, and it is also the first offshore large-scale wind project headed by a United States firm to advance so far in New Jersey.
The larger project is expected to create work equivalent to roughly 392 full-time jobs over its first 10 years, while the Attentive Energy project would produce about 120 over the same period, the companies said in their filings.
The bids are the first to win BPU approval since Ørsted announced it would cease development on two 1,100 MW wind farms off of New Jersey’s coast, citing inflation, interest rate hikes, and lingering supply chain issues that the firm said cut $2.8 billion from the project’s value in the first three quarters of 2023.
The cancellation followed rising opposition to wind energy driven by claims that wind surveying work was causing whale deaths along the nation’s northeastern coast.
The projects also saw opposition over cost and their effect on oceanfront views.
“The decisions we are making today are not ones that we take lightly nor ones we are taking without intense deliberations and an overriding concern for the ratepayers of the state of New Jersey,” said BPU commissioner Zenon Christodoulou.
The newer projects may avoid at least some of that opposition. The two projects approved Wednesday proposed farms further afield than existing proposals, which sometimes drew opposition over the effect turbines would have on oceanfront views.
The Attentive Energy project site is located 47.5 miles off New Jersey’s coast, and Leading Light’s site is also more than 40 miles off the shore. By comparison, just 15 miles of water separated Ørsted’s Ocean Wind from the state’s terrestrial borders.
The distance of the new projects will leave only the tips of the nearest turbines visible from the coast, and only if visibility conditions are good.
New Jersey is already soliciting bids for a fourth round of wind projects. The BPU is expected to select from those projects in early 2025. The state seeks to build 11,000 MW of offshore wind capacity by 2040.
Credit: New Jersey Monitor
