Another New Jersey offshore wind project runs into turbulence; Leading Light seeks pause
Another offshore wind project in New Jersey is experiencing turbulence.
Leading Light Wind is asking the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to grant it an extension until the end of December for its plan to build an offshore wind farm off Long Beach Island.
In a document the company filed with the Utilities Board in July, but which was not posted on the board’s website until Tuesday, it said it had difficulty finding a turbine blade manufacturer for the project and currently has no supplier.
The board was asked to put the project on hold until December 20 while a new source of sheets is sought.
Wes Jacobs, project director and vice president of Offshore Wind Development at Invenergy, one of the project’s partners, said the project wants to hit the pause button “in light of changing market conditions across the industry.”
He said more time is needed for consultation with management and supply chain partners.
“As one of the largest American-led offshore wind projects in the country, we remain committed to delivering this critically important energy project, as well as its significant economic and environmental benefits, to the Garden State,” he said in a statement Tuesday night.
The statement added that during a pause, the company would continue to pursue its project with development activities such as an “ongoing research program and the preparation of its construction and operations plan.”
The request was the latest chapter in the turbulent offshore wind market in New Jersey and the Northeast U.S.
Nearly a year ago, Danish wind energy giant Ørsted scrapped two planned wind farms off the coast of New Jersey because their construction was no longer financially feasible.
Atlantic Shores, another project with preliminary approval in New Jersey, is seeking to re-tender the financial terms of its project.
And opponents of offshore wind energy have the disintegration of a wind turbine blade in July near Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, causing pieces to wash up on the popular vacation island.
Leading Light was one of two projects selected by the state Utilities Board in January. But just three weeks after that approval, one of the three major turbine manufacturers, GE Vernova, said it would not announce what type of turbine Invenergy planned to use in the Leading Light Project, according to a filing with the Utilities Board.
A turbine from manufacturer Vestas was deemed unsuitable for the project and the sole remaining manufacturer, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, told Invenergy in June “that it was significantly increasing the cost of its turbine offering.”
“As a result of these actions, Invenergy currently has no viable turbine supplier,” the company wrote in its filing.
The project, from Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE, would be built 40 miles (65 kilometers) off the coast of Long Beach Island and would consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.
New Jersey has become the epicenter of residents and political opposition to offshore wind energy, with numerous community groups and elected officials — most of them Republicans — saying the industry is environmentally damaging and inherently unprofitable.
Supporters, including many Democrats, say offshore wind energy is critical to shifting the planet away from burning fossil fuels and the climate change that comes with it.
New Jersey has set ambitious goals to become the East Coast hub of the offshore wind industry, and it built a manufacturing facility for wind turbine components in the southern part of the state to help achieve that goal.
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