Ørsted submits bid for new 2,400 MW offshore wind project

The Danish energy company developing an 1,100-megawatt wind farm 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City said Thursday it is submitting a bid with environment regulators for another wind energy project, this one with a proposed capacity of an additional 2,400 MW.

Ørsted North America is calling the project “Ocean Wind 2.” Their first planned development is “Ocean Wind 1,” which is slated for completion in 2024. Ørsted said that the first project alone could generate up to $1.7 billion in economic activity and electricity for half a million homes.

Proponents and state and local officials say it can help usher in an economic boom for the region, especially for Atlantic City, which is dependent on the nine casinos now hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions meant to contain the spread of the virus.

Both projects are in pursuit of a goal Gov. Phil Murphy laid out last year for the state to have a wind energy capacity of 7,500 megawatts by 2050.

“As New Jersey looks to rebuild its economy in the wake of COVID-19 and positions itself as a leader in the new American offshore wind energy, Ørsted is uniquely positioned to help the state achieve its goals,” reads a Thursday statement from David Hardy, chief executive officer for Ørsted Offshore North America.

It is not clear what the price tag would be for the project, nor is it clear what the completion date would be. Ørsted got approval in 2019 from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to go ahead with Ocean Wind 1.

In June, Murphy and several top economic and environmental officials unveiled a 200-acre “wind port” in Salem County on the Delaware Bay, where the wind turbines would be produced and shipped out across the Jersey Shore.

The wind-port will be situated in Lower Alloway Creek Township, adjacent to PSEG’s Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station – PSEG owns the property where the new facilities will be built.

“As we restart from the pandemic, I do not want to see our state simply get back to where we were before COVID-19 in almost any respect,” the governor said in June. “I want to see us move far beyond to a place that we have never been before. The emerging offshore wind industry is one that gives us this tremendous growth potential.”