Unable to find equipment makers, New Jersey offshore wind project seeks 2nd delay
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — An offshore wind project in New Jersey is asking for a second delay, saying it still can’t find someone to build crucial equipment for its turbines in the latest turbulence to hit the industry.
Guiding light wind had already received one break about his project from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which acknowledged the project’s difficulty in finding a manufacturer for the blades that would rotate to generate electricity.
But that hiatus ended on December 20. The day before, Leading Light asked the board for an additional stay, this time until May 20.
The company did not specify the inability to find a blade manufacturer as a reason for the need for a second postponement, but the latest request stated: “The offshore wind equipment market continues to experience significant price volatility and the company has not yet resolved that found for. vicissitude.”
The company did not respond Monday and Tuesday to questions about whether a knife manufacturer is at the center of the second request.
“This additional time will allow us to continue to navigate ongoing market shifts and supply chain challenges as we work to develop this important project for New Jersey,” Wes Jacobs, the project director, said in a statement.
The board could not estimate when it would process the request.
The project, by Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRE, would be built 40 miles off Long Beach Island and consist of up to 100 turbines, enough to power 1 million homes.
Leading Light was one of two projects chosen by the state board in January 2024. But just three weeks after that approval, one of the three major turbine manufacturers, GE Vernova, said it would not build the kind of turbine Invenergy wanted to use in the project. , according to a public filing.
A turbine from manufacturer Vestas was deemed unsuitable for the project, and the remaining manufacturer, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, told Invenergy in June that it was increasing the cost of its turbine, Invenergy said.
Invenergy said it has invested millions of dollars in the project and remains committed to it. The project will pay $105 million toward the cost of a facility to build monopiles, the tower-like foundations of wind turbines, in Paulsboro.
Opponents of offshore wind energy seized on the new request as evidence that the sector is not economically viable, especially with Donald Trump, a offshore wind enemywho will soon return to the White House.
“We can only draw one logical conclusion: the Trump administration is threatening the lifeblood of the offshore wind industry, namely large government subsidies and reduced regulation,” the group Protect Our Coast NJ said in a statement.
There are currently two other provisionally approved offshore wind projects in New Jersey.
Attentive Energy Two would be built 42 miles off the coast of Seaside Heights and would not be visible from the shoreline. It is a joint venture between Paris’s TotalEnergies and London’s Corio Generation and would supply more than 650,000 homes with electricity.
Atlantic Shores, a joint partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF-RE Offshore Development LLC, would generate enough energy to power 700,000 homes. The federal government says the project will be about 9 miles from the coast at its closest point. The company has previously said the nearest turbines will be at least 20 kilometers from the coast.
Some observers say so may not be easy to completely thwart the industry, especially projects that are already operational or have received the required government approvals.
Paulina O’Connor, executive director of the New Jersey Offshore Wind Alliance, said the future of the industry is promising.
“There is no shortage of challenges in advancing a new industry through market-wide shifts, but the fundamentals of offshore wind in New Jersey remain strong,” she said.
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