March 8, 2023 — New Jersey energy officials moved to open a third round of solicitations from offshore wind energy companies that could double the state’s already aggressive wind power goals.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities voted Monday to open applications for between 1.2 gigawatts and 4 GW of capacity, on top of 3.75 GW already in the pipeline set by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration.
“Today marks a pivotal next step toward accomplishment of our offshore wind development goals,” according to a statement from Murphy, who has talked of building out to 11 GW of potential power offshore – rivaling the goals of neighboring New York State.
“Offshore wind constitutes a crucial component of our journey to 100 percent clean energy by 2035, a benchmark that solidifies our position at the national forefront of climate action,” said Murphy. His administration is building infrastructure initiatives like the New Jersey Wind Port near the mouth of the Delaware River to position New Jersey as a hub for building projects off the Mid-Atlantic coast.
The solicitation comes as the Murphy administration and federal agencies are under fire from offshore wind critics, who contend a series of whale strandings on the state’s beaches require a pause in offshore wind geotechnical surveys using sonar and seafloor drilling.
The latest whale deaths include a whale reported this week on Bethany Beach, N.J. on Delaware Bay, and a humpback at Seaside Park, N.J., that investigators say showed evidence of a fractured skull, likely from a vessel propeller.
The Ocean Wind and Atlantic Shores turbine arrays planned off New Jersey already had local opposition from residents and businesses in beachside towns. The whale deaths since December have energized their effort, and generated publicity from Fox News and other conservative commentators who have picked up the critics’ narrative that survey noise could have disoriented the whales’ sense of hearing.