Credit: (NJEDA)

Ocean Wind 1 reached a milestone on its way to building New Jersey’s first offshore wind project as a federal agency issued a final Environmental Impact Statement, moving the project closer to beginning onshore construction this fall.

After the decision by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Ørsted, the developer of the wind farm, said it expects to begin construction activities offshore in 2024 on a project that could provide enough power for up to a half-million residences.

This would be New Jersey’s first offshore wind project. Ørsted’s goal is to build up to 98 wind-turbine generators within its lease area in the Atlantic Ocean, at least 13 miles southeast of Atlantic City.

Offshore wind is a key component of the clean-energy goals advanced by Gov. Phil Murphy and President Joe Biden.

Wind and whales

The advancement of the facility comes at a time when both administrations are facing demands by critics and local communities to halt offshore wind development, an activity they say may be a factor in a wave of deaths along metropolitan beaches of whales and other marine mammals.

So far, those calls have been unheeded as most officials, scientists and clean-energy advocates say there is no evidence linking the deaths with offshore wind activities, such as survey vessels mapping the ocean floor.

“BOEM continues to make progress towards a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a clean-energy industry in the United States,’’ said Elizabeth Klein, director of the agency. “Offshore wind is a critical component of the Biden-Harris administration’s strategy to tackle the climate crisis, while creating good-paying jobs and ensuring economic opportunities to all communities.’’

The agency plans to issue a Record of Decision on whether to approve the proposed project this summer. The formal record marks the end of the environmental impact decision process.

If built, the project will be the nation’s third commercial offshore wind farm. Its wind turbines would range in capacity from 1,215 megawatts to 1,440 megawatts. Ørsted plans to build three offshore substations; cables carrying electricity from the turbines are expected to make landfall at Ocean County and Cape May County.

Pleased with progress

“Ocean Wind 1 continues to advance through the multiyear federal permitting and we’re pleased to reach this latest milestone,’’ said Maddy Urbish, head of government affairs and market strategy for Ørsted.

Besides building the state’s first offshore wind farm, Ørsted also won approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to build a second offshore wind project with a capacity of 1,148 megawatts near the same lease area as the initial project.

Atlantic Shores, a 1,150-megawatt project, also off the coast of southern Jersey, recently had its draft environmental impact statement released by BOEM earlier this month. The project won BPU approval in the summer of 2021.

The Murphy administration earlier this year proposed increasing reliance on offshore wind generation as a key component of its goal of phasing out fossil-fuel power plants and achieving a clean-energy economy. It now hopes to build 11,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2040.