According to the NJBPU, today’s decision represents single largest award for offshore wind in U.S. to date and moves New Jersey closer to its goal of 3.5 GW of offshore wind by 2030.
Today, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) made a historic announcement, approving Ørsted’s solicitation for its1,100-MW Ocean Wind project. As New Jersey works toward a goal of 100% clean energy, the offshore wind project is expected to generate $1.17 billion in economic benefits and provide about 15,000 jobs.
Liz Burdock, CEO & president of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, a non-profit dedicated to establishing an offshore wind supply chain in the U.S., released this statement: “The award of this long-term power purchase agreement means that Ørsted can now move ahead aggressively to develop the U.S. supply chain and start the process of ordering the towers, blades, foundations, cables, and hundreds of other parts and components that will be assembled into a massive wind farm,” she said.
This bid award also means that Governor Murphy’s goal of 3500 MW of offshore wind by 2030 is well under way, with the next solicitation opening in 2020 and the third Request for Proposal (RFP) going out in 2022.
“The scale of New Jersey’s award along with the state’s procurement schedule and transparent process also gives manufacturers the confidence needed to make the investments required to set up the a local supply chain and manufacturing,” said Burdock. “This is what I meant when I said during our IPF conference in April that the offshore wind industry is now and it’s real — real contracts for offshore wind power, real companies being hired, real high-skilled jobs being filled, real clean power for New Jersey consumers.”
She added: “We congratulate our Network member Ørsted on winning this highly competitive bid. We look forward to working with them as they mobilize the US based offshore wind supply chain to build, assemble and install their offshore wind farms by 2024-25, and operate them through to 2050.”
Filed Under: News, Offshore wind, Projects
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