New Jersey breaks ground on offshore wind port

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Thursday for the New Jersey Wind Port, the US’ first purpose-built offshore wind port.

The event was attended by New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, US labour secretary Marty Walsh and a number of other public and private sector officials.

The port will be located on an artificial island on the eastern shores of the Delaware river in Salem county and is intended to position the state as the hub of the offshore wind industry on the East Coast. It will support New Jersey in its objectives of reaching 100% clean energy by 2050 and 7.5 GW of offshore wind energy by 2035.

Initial potential tenants are the winners in New Jersey’s recent offshore wind solicitation, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, which is equally owned by EDF Renewables North America and Shell New Energies US, and Denmark’s Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED). The two developers were awarded a combined capacity of about 2.7 GW. They plan to build their projects at the wind port and their bids also included proposed partnerships with turbine makers General Electric and Vestas to set up nacelle assembly facilities at the port, the governor’s office noted.

AECOM-Tishman has been selected as the construction manager for the port project. Earthworks on the site will start in the coming weeks. Major construction is scheduled to begin in December, with completion targeted for winter 2023/24.

A total of USD 200 million (EUR 169m) has been earmarked for the development of the wind port in the fiscal year 2022 state budget. The sum is in addition to USD 13 million from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and USD 44 million in partnership with New Jersey Department of Transportation for dredging.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.845)

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