January 25, 2024 — New Jersey’s utility regulator on Wednesday approved two offshore wind power projects with a combined capacity of 3,742-megawatts (MW) and whose backers include Invenergy and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA).
“Today’s action moves New Jersey closer to achieving Governor Phil Murphy’s goal of reaching 100 percent clean energy by 2035,” the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) said. The board said the two projects would bring about $6.8 billion in economic benefits to the state and provide enough energy to power around 1.8 million homes.
The offshore wind industry is expected to play a major role in helping several states and U.S. President Joe Biden meet goals to decarbonize the power grid and combat climate change.
But progress was slow last year after offshore developers canceled contracts to sell power in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey, and threatened to cancel agreements in other states, as soaring inflation, interest rate hikes and supply-chain problems increased project costs.