It’s estimated the two offshore wind farms given the go-ahead last week by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities will involve $2.5 billion in guaranteed direct spending through the first 10 years of operation. Attentive Energy, a partnership of Total Energies and Corio Generation, will develop a 1,342-megawatt project 42 miles east of Seaside Heights; Invenergy and energyRE are the developers of the other project, the 2,400-MW Leading Light Wind.

The state is also projected to see $6.8 billion in economic benefits over the life of the projects. Included in the total is $164 million to be invested by Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy for expansion of the monopile manufacturing facility at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal, Gloucester County. State officials expect the additional funding will increase the production capacity there of monopiles, used as foundations for massive wind turbines, from 100 to 166 per year.