March 2, 2023 — Opponents of offshore wind flooded a small New Jersey town meeting Monday in a bid to block a critical cable link for Ørsted’s Ocean Wind 1 project.
Energized by social media and publicity over winter whale strandings, more than 150 protesters tried to convince Upper Township officials to at least delay plans for moving an electrical substation, where power from the planned 1,100-megawatt wind turbine array would enter the regional power grid.
The protestors came close to that goal. In the end, the Township Committee narrowly voted 3 to 2 in favor of allowing the substation move.
With two New Jersey congressmen promising to challenge offshore wind plans – and 30 Jersey Shore mayors demanding a moratorium on projects – wind power critics seem determined to fight at the local level too.
Their coalition includes the state’s commercial fishing industry. A 2022 Rutgers University study found the surf clam fleet could lose 15 percent of its revenue if boat’s can’t fish on historic grounds after wind turbines are built.
The Ocean Wind 1 export cable would come ashore on the barrier island at Ocean City, N.J., go under the back bay and connect to the grid through an electrical substation at Beesley’s Point in Upper Township on the mainland. The connection survives from one of New Jersey’s last coal-fired power plants, the defunct 447-megawatt BL England generating station.
Upper Township officials set out a redevelopment plan for the Beesley’s Point neighborhood, envisioning a waterfront district, potentially with a hotel and marina, on the Great Egg Harbor River. At the town hall on Feb. 27, they considered moving the substation – Ørsted’s preferred connection to the regional power grid – and faced a standing-room-only crowd demanding they block it.
“Ocean Wind is clearly labeled on the plan,” said Roseanne Serowartka of Ocean City. “I do understand the people here who want jobs, who want that redevelopment, but not at that cost.
“Will the people who come to that hotel want to go to a beach with industrialization?”