By unanimous votes, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities put Gov. Phil Murphy’s ambitious but beleaguered clean-energy agenda back on track Wednesday. It selected two out of four bids for new offshore wind farms. Both winners — Attentive Energy and Leading Light Wind — plan to build sites generating more than 3,700 megawatts of electricity from turbines located at least 40 miles off the New Jersey shoreline.
The awards came with a stern warning from BPU Commissioner Zenon Christodoulou. “On behalf of New Jersey, we will hold you accountable,” Christodoulou said. “The bold future we are charting today will require even bolder — perhaps fanatical, even tyrannical — oversight of your projects and your performance.”
The BPU estimates these projects will power 1.8 million homes. The impact on ratepayers is expected to range from $6.84 per month for residential customers and up to $513 a month for industrial consumers. Winners promised to help low-income ratepayers.
The approvals come less than three months after Danish developer Ørsted unexpectedly canceled its wind farm projects off Cape May, citing supply chain problems and rising costs even after lawmakers signed over tax breaks at ratepayer expense.
These new, pricier bids require both companies to invest in the Paulsboro facility where turbine foundations are constructed and to order shipments through the South Jersey windport.
“We will enforce those guarantees with relentless oversight and unwavering defense of our ratepayers. There will be no hat-in-hand requests, no unforeseen expenses, no nickel-and-diming,” Christodoulou said.
Ørsted’s withdrawal gummed up Murphy’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2035. The BPU has moved up the next round of offshore wind project bids.
“I think the states have really gone through a lot of learning over the years. So using those lessons learned, things can be accelerated,” said Kris Ohleth, who directs the Special Initiative on Offshore Wind. “Things need to be accelerated if we are going to meet all the climate and economic targets that offshore wind can help support. So I don’t think it’s too quick a pace. I think it’s an urgent and expedient pace.”
Offshore wind farms have sparked emotional protests, with worries about impacts on fisheries, whale populations and Shore tourism. These two new proposals might be more acceptable. They’ll discuss it, said Bob Stern, director of Save Long Beach Island.
“It just makes more sense to site much further offshore and not cause all the pain with the shore degradation,” he said. “And in doing that, you’d also leave a path for the whales to migrate.
The new projects’ first wind turbine won’t start spinning until at least 2030.
