US Offshore Wind Trade Comes Roaring Again, In New Jersey

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The US offshore wind business suffered one blow after one other final yr, together with the cancellation of two initiatives totaling 2.2 gigawatts deliberate for the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of New Jersey. That made for some cheering amongst offshore wind opponents, however maybe they need to have stored their pom-poms dry. Earlier as we speak the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities accepted two new offshore initiatives that can deliver greater than 3.7 gigawatts to the Backyard State.

Two Extra Large Offshore Wind Initiatives For New Jersey

The Asbury Park Press had the inside track as of 12:06 this afternoon so hat tip to them. The Board of Public Utilities posted a press launch on-line shortly after that.

One of many approvals went to Main Gentle Wind, which joins the US renewable power builders Invenergy and energyRE in a 2,400-megawatt undertaking to be positioned within the New York Bight. A bight refers to an angle within the shoreline, which on this case is the big nook fashioned by the coasts of Lengthy Island and New Jersey.

As for why it’s not known as the Lengthy Island-New Jersey Bight, take it up with the mapmakers. The New York Bight is wealthy territory for offshore wind growth as a result of it checks off all of the packing containers together with comparatively shallow waters that allow standard fixed-platform building in addition to proximity to port services and high-population, energy-hungry coastal cities.

The opposite undertaking accepted for New Jersey this morning is Attentive Vitality Two, a sister undertaking to New York’s Attentive Vitality One. Each of the Attentive initiatives are partnerships between the French power agency TotalEnergies and the UK offshore wind developer Corio Era, for a mixed capability of three,000 megawatts.

Attentive Vitality Two is predicted so as to add as much as 1, 342 megawatts of offshore wind to New Jersey’s renewable power portfolio.

About-Face For The NJ BPU

In contrast to in years previous, the present iteration of the New Jersey BPU will not be shy about supporting the offshore wind business within the Backyard State

“Mixed, the initiatives will deliver $6.8 billion in financial advantages to New Jersey and supply sufficient domestically produced power to energy 1.8 million houses,” BPU defined in its press launch.

“Immediately’s award additional cements New Jersey’s dedication to constructing a robust offshore wind business,” chipped in Christine Guhl-Sadovy, BPU president.

“This portfolio of initiatives collectively represents what offshore wind provides – clear power that can yield environmental advantages for generations to return, financial advantages to spice up New Jersey’s economic system for many years, and 1000’s of good-paying, family-sustaining jobs,” she added.

The brand new approvals vindicate New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. His advocacy for the offshore business contains help for setting up the brand new New Jersey Wind Port in Paulsboro, which launched in 2021, together with help for new tax laws benefiting the Danish power agency Ørsted final summer time. That was not sufficient to cease Ørsted from cancelling its Ocean Wind 1 and a pair of initiatives final fall, however the two new initiatives reveal that traders are nonetheless eyeballing alternatives within the New Jersey wind market.

New Jersey’s On-Once more, Off-Once more Offshore Wind Trade

Ørsted’s cancellation was not the primary time the state had excessive hopes for kick-starting a house grown wind business, solely to see it dashed upon the rocks of partisan policy-making.

New Jersey had an opportunity to be the primary US state to have an offshore wind farm in its pocket through the tenure of former Governor Chris Christie (this Chris Christie), when the US Division of Vitality supplied a $47 million grant to the New Jersey agency Fisherman’s Vitality to assist make it occur.

Nonetheless, funding for the six-turbine, 24-megawatt undertaking was withdrawn in 2017, with Christie’s coverage makers on the BPU reportedly enjoying a job.

“In 2010, throughout his first time period, Christie signed a landmark wind power legislation designed to encourage growth of the renewable useful resource off the state’s gusty shore,” the Washington Submit reported again in 2017. “However the public utility board managed by Christie appointees by no means absolutely carried out a plan meant to incentivize that growth.“

That’s not a lot of a shock. Gradual-walking the wind undertaking all the way down to the nub was not the one Christie power coverage aimed toward sinking renewables. “He unilaterally killed the $9 billion ARC mass transit undertaking, pulled New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gasoline Initiative, dropped the ball on a multi-state electrical automobile initiative, dragged his toes on a brand new multi-state consortium to develop Atlantic coast offshore wind, and so forth and so forth (it’s an extended listing),” CleanTechnica noticed again in 2018.

The Gloves Are Off

Christie was term-limited out of workplace in 2018, however different wind power foes have risen to take his place. Republican U.S. Consultant Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey Congressional District 2, for instance, shot off a letter to Governor Murphy earlier this week, through which he credited citizen pushback for the cancellation of the 2 Ørsted initiatives.

Ørsted has said in any other case, citing provide chain points and inflation among the many financial headwinds that motivated it to deal with different elements of its huge portfolio, however that element was left on the chopping room ground.

“Regardless of these clear examples of public dissent, it has come to my consideration that the New Jersey Public Board of Utilities (NJBPU) is holding a ‘particular assembly’ with the anticipated agenda of approving a minimum of one new OSW [offshore wind] undertaking off the coast of New Jersey. That is unacceptable and I urge you to drop your unrealistic Inexperienced New Deal agenda earlier than you trigger irreversible harm to our state’s economic system, thriving ocean-based industries, and delicate marine ecosystems,” Van Drew wrote.

“The state’s relentless push for OSW, regardless of a major lack of clear and thorough assessments on the impression OSW could have on native communities and the surroundings, continues to be a serious concern for the residents of New Jersey,” he continued.

Apparently offshore wind can be a serious concern for teams affiliated with fossil power industries.

Final April, NJ.com described how a low profile however reportedly influential proper wing suppose tank known as the Caesar Rodney Institute turned a part of an organized try and blame wind generators with an uncommon variety of whale deaths in New Jersey final yr.

“Information present the advocacy group, supported partially by darkish cash contributions from a petroleum commerce group and headed by a local weather disaster denier, has helped fund web sites with environmental-sounding names similar to Defend Our Coast, in an effort to hyperlink the deaths of the whales to offshore wind technology to fire up public opposition to the business,” NJ.com reported.

The group Vitality and Coverage Institute can be following the cash. Final October they reported {that a} “Republican group that paid for anti-offshore wind energy adverts focusing on Democrats forward of New Jersey’s November 7 state legislative elections raked in a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} from the fossil gas business earlier this yr.”

As for the ginned-up outrage over lifeless whales washing up on the seashores of New Jersey , it needs to be identified that there aren’t any wind generators within the New York Bight as but.  There isn’t any “metal within the water,” because the saying goes. Nonetheless, there are many boats and fishing gear within the water, each of that are recognized to trigger whales to die.

Simply saying.

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Picture: Offshore wind generators are coming to New Jersey (courtesy of energyRE).