Ocean Wind is a proposed utility-scale offshore

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

to be located on the

Outer Continental Shelf The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) is a feature of the geography of the United States. The OCS is the part of the internationally recognized continental shelf of the United States which does not fall under the jurisdictions of the individual U. ...

approximately off the coast of

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

. It is being developed by

Ørsted US Offshore Wind Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind is an offshore wind energy development group that is affiliated with Ørsted, a Danish firm. It is joint headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. As of 2019, it was involved in some of the lar ...

in conjunction with

Public Service Enterprise Group The Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) is a publicly traded diversified energy company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey and was established in 1985 with a legacy dating back to 1903. The company's largest subsidiary is ...

(PSE&G). Construction is planned to begin in the early 2020s; expected commissioning is in 2024. The closed

Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Station was a single unit 636 MWe boiling water reactor power plant in the United States. The plant is located on an site adjacent to Oyster Creek in the Forked River section of Lacey Township in Ocean County, New ...

and B.L. England Generating Station would provide transmission points for energy generated by the wind farm. At 1,100 MW, it will be the largest producer of

wind power in New Jersey Wind power in New Jersey is in the early stages of development. As of 2022, New Jersey has just six wind turbines, but the state has plans to develop several major offshore wind projects on the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean off the sout ...

and largest offshore wind farm in the United States.

Background

In the United States, federal waters commence 3

nautical miles A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today t ...

offshore. The U.S.

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, established in 2010 by Secretarial Order. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) states: "...the outer Continental Shelf is a vi ...

awarded leases for offshore wind sites in 2015. NJWEA South is offshore

Atlantic County Atlantic County is a County (United States), county located along the southern coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the county had a population of 274,534.

and

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on Cape May bound by Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are f ...

, where the ocean floor is deep. The rights were later acquired by DONG Energy, which became Ørsted, parent of

. The company was selected by the

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) is a regulatory authority in New Jersey "with authority to oversee the regulated utilities, which in turn provide critical services such as natural gas, electricity, water, telecommunications and ca ...

(NJBPU) in June 2019. PSE&G later joined the project. There is only one other utility-scale wind farm in the state, the 5-turbine

Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm The Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm in Atlantic City, New Jersey is the first coastal wind farm in the United States and the first wind farm in New Jersey. It became operational in March 2006 and consists of five 1.5 MW turbines built by General Ele ...

. Two other projects which would provide wind power to New Jersey are Garden State Offshore Energy, Offshore

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

in WEA OC-A 482 North opposite

Rehoboth Beach Rehoboth Beach ( ) is a city on the Atlantic Ocean along the Delaware Beaches in eastern Sussex County, Delaware. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the population was 1,327, reflecting a decline of 161 (11.2%) from the 1,488 counted in the 2000 ce ...

, also by Ørsted US Offshore Wind, and Atlantic Shores Wind Farm in Offshore New Jersey WEA OCS-A 0499 -- off the coast of

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore (known by locals simply as the Shore) is the coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. Geographically, the term encompasses about of oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy in the north to Cape May Po ...

(mostly opposite

Ocean County Ocean County is a county located along the Jersey Shore in the south-central portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey. It borders the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Its county seat is Toms River.Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

north to Barnegat Light) by EDF Renewables/Shell. Another potential WEA is Offshore New Jersey/New York on the west/south side of

Hudson Canyon The Hudson Canyon is a submarine canyon that begins from the shallow outlet of the estuary at the mouth of the Hudson River. It extends out over seaward across the continental shelf finally connecting to the deep ocean basin at a depth of 3 to 4 ...

21 miles offshore opposite Monmouth County. In September 2020, New Jersey officials delayed the project citing concerns about economic benefits of offshore wind, including construction of monopoles and negative effects on the fishing industry. In December 2020, Ørsted put in a bid for Ocean Wind 2, a second installation of wind turbines in the same area, which the NJBPU selected in June 2021. It will be an additional 1,148 MW, for a total energy capacity at the site of 2,248 MW.

Design, construction and staging

Turbines

Haliade-X 12 MW

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s produced by

GE Wind Energy GE Wind Energy is a branch of GE Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric. The company manufactures and sells wind turbines to the international market. In 2018, GE was the fourth largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world. History ...

will be used. The structures are tall with a rotor blade diameter of . As many as 99 will be constructed. As of 2019, they had the highest capacity of turbines being produced.

On-shore staging center

Ørsted U.S. Offshore Wind is also partnering with Tradepoint Atlantic, based in

Port of Baltimore Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's largest port facilities f ...

, to create a 50-acre staging center for on-land assembly, storage and loading out into deep waters for projects along the East Coast. The Port of Paulsboro could become the site for the production the

monopile A deep foundation is a type of foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a vertical structural element ...

foundations for the turbines.

On-shore interconnection

In September 2019, Ocean Wind, with the approval of the

, secured the capacity interconnection rights to bring the power generated by the wind farm on-shore at

in Lacey Township, a 619-megawatt nuclear power plant which was shut down in September 2018. It can use the existing power infrastructure of the plant, after some upgrades, to connect to the regional

transmission grid Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is d ...

. Ocean Wind is petitioning the Board to approve a second interconnection point at the former coal-fired B.L. England Generating Station through

Ocean City, New Jersey Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, P ...

Impact on marine life and fisheries

The wind farm will be built in prime fishing areas. Its impact on fisheries industry remains unclear, though there are some concerns and recommendations. Some have asked for a 5-year moratorium on construction until impact on fishing industry is further studied.

References

External links

* {{Wind power in the United States Wind farms in New Jersey Atlantic County, New Jersey Cape May County, New Jersey Proposed wind farms in the United States Offshore wind farms in the United States