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US Regional Development
New Jersey Offshore Wind
New Jersey Announces $400 Million Offshore Wind Port ... This is New Jersey's plan to become 'the Houston of American offshore wind'
Peter Burgess
IMAGE Wind turbines off the coast of Block Island, Rhode Island. IONNA22/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
New Jersey is taking steps to become a major hub for offshore wind in the United States, announcing a plan to build a 30-acre port along the Delaware River for assembling and deploying turbines, plus an additional 25 acres for manufacturing facilities. Officials say the new port, which is expected to cost as much as $400 million, will create up to 1,500 jobs in southern New Jersey.
The port will be located on an artificial island built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the early 20th century in Lower Alloways Creek Township. The island is already home to three nuclear reactors, including the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, managed by the utilities company Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), The Washington Post reported. No bridges exist between the island and the Atlantic Ocean, allowing turbines built at the staging facility to be hoisted upright and towed out to sea without obstruction. Construction on the port is expected to start in 2021. A second phase of the project would add even more land for manufacturing facilities and technological development.
“We’ll be able to be the focal point for the industry in this part of the country,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told The Washington Post. “We want a significant piece of the supply chain… So we’re literally creating this industry from whole cloth.”
The announcement, made earlier this week, is the latest development in New Jersey’s effort to become a major player in the country’s emerging offshore wind industry, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The state has pledge to produce 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035 and to generate 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2050.
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PowerPost Follow @powerpost PowerPost Analysis The Energy 202: This is New Jersey's plan to become 'the Houston of American offshore wind' By Dino Grandoni with Paulina Firozi Dino Grandoni Dino Grandoni is an energy and environmental policy reporter and the author of PowerPost's daily tipsheet on the beat, The Energy 202. Before The Post, he was the climate and energy reporter at BuzzFeed News, where he covered the intersection of science, industry and government. Follow
June 17, 2020
New Jersey wants to be the capital of the offshore wind energy industry. So it is building a giant port.
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced on Tuesday that his state will stage construction for the colossal turbines that may one day dot the East Coast horizon as Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states rush to build more renewable energy.
“We’ll be able to be the focal point for the industry in this part of the country,” Murphy said in an interview.
A large cooling tower and other buildings currently on Artificial Island in rural Salem County, N.J. (Mel Evans/AP)
For New Jersey, it is about more than just tackling climate change.
“We have a huge opportunity,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. “Somebody's going to get to be the Houston of American offshore wind.”
To help ensure New Jersey plays that role, the state government is planning to turn 30 acres along the Eastern Shore of the Delaware River 20 miles south of Wilmington, Del., into a staging area for assembling the massive turbines. Taller than 800 feet, the turbines will tower higher than the Washington Monument.
State leaders are also hoping to coax factories to the rural area, too, and have set aside 25 acres for potential turbine part manufacturers. They aim to start construction next year and launch operations by 2024. Another 160 acres will be available for future development.
The port is part of the state’s broader plan to get all of its electricity from clean energy by the middle of the century. New Jersey, already one of the nation’s fastest-warming places, wants to generate 7,500 megawatts from offshore wind by 2035 — enough to power half of New Jersey’s homes.
Murphy also has his sights on supplying Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia with the turbine port, all of which have plans to build offshore wind generation along the Eastern Seaboard’s shallow waters.
“We want a significant piece of the supply chain in New Jersey,” Murphy said. “So we’re literally creating this industry from whole cloth.”
The port, he added, “is a huge step in that direction.”
The South Jersey spot checks off a number of boxes for politicians and engineers.
The site — named Artificial Island after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created it around 1900 — is five miles from the nearest residential area. It is already home to three nuclear reactors — run by Public Service Enterprise Group, an energy company based in Newark — to provide electricity.
And crucially, there are no bridges between it and the open ocean. That is important because after being assembled, the turbines are often stood upright and moved into place by ship.
New Jersey expects the port to employ 1,500 workers and cost up to $400 million to complete, with taxpayers and companies splitting the bill.
The announcement comes as Murphy is up for reelection next year.
In 2017, he ran on the promise of kickstarting the state's offshore wind industry after years of foot-dragging by state official under former Republican governor Chris Christie.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). (Anne-Marie Caruso/The Record via AP, Pool)
The city of New Bedford, Mass., has a 28-acre turbine-assembly area. But it does not have the space New Jersey has to host manufacturing plants, Murphy’s office said. New York, too, is looking to invest up to $200 million to upgrade ports for offshore wind.
The offshore energy industry also welcomed Murphy’s announcement.
“Today’s focus on port infrastructure development shows the Garden State is positioning itself as a first-mover in the race to capture the jobs and investments associated with offshore wind manufacturing, assembly, and staging,” Laura Morton, a senior director at the American Wind Energy Association, said in a statement.
Dan Reicher, who ran the Energy Department’s renewable energy office under Bill Clinton and is not involved in the New Jersey project, added that Murphy’s plan is “a serious shot in the arm at a very difficult moment” as the country confronts both climate change and covid-19.
Over the past decade, wind energy has eaten into the market share of coal and nuclear power.
It now accounts for about 7 percent of all the nation’s electricity.
But virtually all that generation is happening in windswept prairie states, such as Iowa and Kansas, along with Texas.
Europe, by comparison, is far ahead in harnessing fiercer ocean winds, with over 5,000 offshore turbines connected to the grid in a dozen countries. Denmark, England, Germany and Northern Ireland all have ports specialized for wind turbine construction.
The United States, meanwhile, has only five utility-scale offshore turbines — all off Rhode Island.
But that may soon change, with Maryland, Massachusetts and New York also setting major targets. The enormous size of the turbines means that much of the manufacturing will happen domestically.
One issue: Any project in federal waters requires permits from the Trump administration.
In speeches, President Trump is hostile toward wind turbines, accusing them without evidence of causing cancer. But his deputies at the Interior Department have gone ahead with lease sales off three states.
But last year, approval for an 84-turbine project off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts hit a snag when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it required more study on the impact to commercial fishermen.
Jane Cohen, a senior environmental policy adviser for Murphy, said they are in touch with federal officials and “feel confident that these projects will be able to move forward.”
James Manwell, professor and director of the Wind Energy Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said it would make more sense for the U.S. government to coordinate construction between the states — like it did in the shipbuilding boom during World War II.
“If this was a rational world,” he said, “the federal government would take a greater role.”