It’s ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity,’ officials say
By ERIC AVEDISSIAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – The Ocean Wind generating farm may be constructed out in the ocean, but manufacturing jobs are expected to “come back” to land in New Jersey as part of the supply chain.
That was part of the message Tuesday morning at a forum for businesses interested in the “once-in-a-generation opportunity.” The forum was at the Flanders Hotel, hosted by the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce.
Ocean Wind is a 1,100-megawatt offshore wind farm that will be located 15 miles off the Atlantic City shoreline. The project is expected to create 3,000 jobs through the development and construction cycle and 69 to 70 full-time jobs that will remain to operate and maintain the facility.
Tier 1 suppliers who will provide parts and services for the project may expand employment opportunities as a result of Ocean Wind.
Ørsted, a wind energy pioneer, applied to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) for the Ocean Wind project.
BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso delivered the forum’s keynote address Tuesday morning, saying renewable energy is becoming important to deal with climate change.
“New Jersey is warming quicker than some of our surrounding neighbors. The reason for that is unknown, which requires us to really take a proactive position in trying to in some way mitigate the effects of climate change,” Fiordaliso said.
Fiordaliso noted by 2100, the sea level will rise by 6 feet and the Eastern Seaboard will experience constant flooding.
He said the economic benefits for renewable energy must be examined.
“Our utilities for the most part are very excited about this energy revolution we’re going through. We are changing the way we generate and use energy,” Fiordaliso said.
The BPU’s energy master plan sets a goal of making the state carbon neutral by 2050, and features wind power.
He said the BPU will initiate a program by the year’s end for energy efficiency which includes a community solar program, and increasing the number of electric vehicles and vehicle charging stations.
In June 2019, the BPU awarded Ørsted’s Ocean Wind project with a $1.6 billion subsidy over the next 20 years.
Fiordaliso said the Ocean Wind project is expected to be up and running by 2024. Construction on Ocean Wind is slated to begin in the early 2020s with the wind farm operational in 2024.
Underwater cables will come onto shore at Ocean City for connection at substations onshore. The retired B.L. England station in Upper Township and a location in Atlantic City are areas under consideration for the substations.
Gov. Phil Murphy increased the state’s goal of wind-generated energy from 3,500 megawatts to 7,500 megawatts by 2035, which Fiordaliso called “a very ambitious goal, but one that’s possible and one that we will achieve.”
He said the economic benefits of wind power will involve a supply chain, ancillary businesses and increased employment created from to the Ocean Wind project.
“Manufacturing will come back to New Jersey as part of that supply chain,” Fiordaliso said.
The BPU regulates utilities and is the clean energy office for New Jersey, he added. He said by 2035, “millions of homes” in the state will be powered by wind energy.
“It’s unfortunate that we’re not getting the assistance that we should be getting from the federal government because this is an international problem,” Fiordaliso said.
He encouraged participants to look at how their businesses can fit into “this new energy world.”
“How many times can you say in one’s career that you’ve been involved in a revolution? We are involved in an energy revolution,” Fiordaliso said.
Despite obstacles, clean energy industries are seeing “a little progress every day.”
“There are very powerful forces out there that don’t want to see this happen,” Fiordaliso said. “This is something that when we all look back on it, we can have the feeling of satisfaction that we’ve contributed to a better world.”
A panel, moderated by the Cape May County Chamber’s Environmental and Legislative Committee Chairman Steve Morey, focused on the potential impacts of wind power in Cape May County.
“We want to give everyone an opportunity to get a jump start on communication with Ørsted and their Tier 1 suppliers,” Morey said.
Panel participants included Cape May County Chamber of Commerce President Vicki Clark, Cape May County Tourism Director Diane Wieland, Director of Sustainability and Government Relations for Lund’s Fisheries Jeff Kaelin, and Sector Lead of Offshore Wind for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority Sy Oytan.
Clark said with the possibility of new offshore wind jobs in the area, there was a real opportunity for diversifying economic prosperity from traditional tourism-driven industries and commercial fishing to offshore wind.
“The chamber really wanted to be in the forefront of leading the conversation,” Clark said. “How do businesses and individuals in Cape May County engage in this industry? We saw an opportunity to bring people together hosting this forum to have access to these jobs.”
Clark said the forum was also about developing the offshore wind industry and job opportunities while coexisting with the county’s existing industries “in a harmonious fashion.”
Wieland said Cape May County generates 26,572 tourism jobs, or 42 percent of county employment.
“When you look at tourism in Cape May County, it’s a $6.6 billion industry,” Wieland said.
Fishing industry
has concerns
Kaelin said Lund’s is a vertically integrated, family-owned company established in 1954 and supports more than 200 people.
He said commercial fishing generates $6 billion annually in New Jersey import and export sales and employs 30,000, many multi-generational.
“We manage fish. We create food. This is all new. This is very challenging for us,” Kaelin said.
In 2018, the Port of Cape May-Wildwood landed 102 million pounds of fish and shellfish worth $66 million, making it the 10th port by value in the U.S. and the third on the Atlantic coast.
“We feel that the fishing grounds that we do occupy haven’t been used to identify leaded locations by BOEM (Bureau of Ocean Energy Management),” Kaelin said. “We feel that BOEM and the developers aren’t listening necessarily to the spatial needs of our industry and the environmental analysis occurring during construction design is too late.”
Kaelin said there’s a potential to displace 60 percent of the footprint of the federal fisheries surveys, which are the foundation for establishing sustainable fisheries in the region.
He said the Garden State Seafood Association proposed letting the industry identify the locations for wind farms to minimize impact and force developers to have conversation about the locations.
“There is a memorandum of understanding with the Fisheries Service and BOEM to identify areas of mutual interest, promote engagement and incorporate our expertise in planning and development,” Kaelin said.
Kaelin said the fishing industry has concerns about Ocean Wind.
“Our goal again is to coexist and not be displaced,” Kalein said
N.J. to have big share of wind power
Oytan said forecasts project about 25 gigawatts of wind capacity to be built in the eastern U.S. by 2035 in six states, which translates to $100 billion of investments.
“Our goal of 7.5 gigawatts translates to $30 billion of investment into the windfarm,” Oytan said.
One gigawatt from an offshore wind farm produces enough energy fill the needs of 500,000 households, he said.
Constructing about 100 turbines for 1 gigawatt of capacity translates into 3,500 jobs. Of those, 3,000 will be short-term construction jobs while 500 will be operational jobs.
“When we talk about the 25 gigawatt target in the U.S. in these various states, New Jersey’s share of 7.5 gigawatts by 2035 translates into 30 percent of the whole market share,” Oytan said.
He said several “tools” offer incentives for businesses. The Offshore Wind Tax Credit, valued at $100 billion, is designed to bring large wind turbine component and turbine manufacturers into New Jersey and provide reimbursement of capital investments for large-scale supply chains. The Offshore Winds Supply Chain Technical Assistance Program supports local New Jersey companies to participate in the supply chain for the offshore wind industry. Offshore Wind Supply Chain Registry, launched in 2019 is a searchable registry that creates a profile of each business interested in the industry.
How to get involved
Ørsted’s Senior Stakeholder Engagement Manager Kris Ohleth and Ørsted’s Senior Supply Chain Development Manager Grant van Wyngaarden explained how businesses and suppliers can get involved with the Ocean Wind Project.
Ohleth called the project a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
“There’s a huge coastal electricity demand between Boston and Washington, D.C., coincident to that is a tremendous offshore wind resource, really a world-class resource, off the coast of that exact area,” Ohleth said. “We have a large, buildable continental shelf… That area is only 60 to 100 feet of water deep. That gives us an awesome opportunity for essentially easy engineering.”
Ohleth said there’s an opportunity to bring offshore wind to the region.
“If it’s not Ocean Wind and it’s not Ørsted, you and your businesses should be thinking about ways you can get engaged more broadly,” Ohleth said.
Ohleth said Ørsted leased an offshore area from BOEM for the Ocean Wind project to build the wind farm. She said stakeholders were concerned that the project’s original distance from shore was 8 miles. The project has since been moved out farther, to 15 miles.
“We don’t know everything yet about where we’re putting this wind farm and the cables. We’d like to be in the community early. We won’t be operating this project until 2024, but this gives us a chance … to get feedback from you,” Ohleth said.
She said on a typical wind farm construction, there are up to 25 vessels on site.
The project will use the GE Haliade-X wind turbines, which are 853 tall with rotor blades 351 feet long and 722 feet in diameter.
“It’s the most efficient and powerful turbine to be used in this market, 45 percent more powerful than any machine available on the market today and New Jersey will be debuting this technology off this coast,” Ohleth said.
Van Wyngaarden said project engineering and design for Ocean Wind will continue through 2020, with permitting expected in 2022 and onshore constructing beginning soon after. Construction on the offshore components will begin in 2023 with the project beginning operations in 2024.
“It’s still a few years away, but a project of this magnitude needs to be designed and detailed to the utmost scrutiny. That’s why we’re all actively engaged today,” van Wyngaarden said.
Van Wyngaarden showed a presentation featuring Ocean Wind’s procurement schedule. He said Ørsted’s teams are announcing contracts to Tier 1 suppliers for work including cable installation, foundation, substation installation and substation components.
Ørsted
Ørsted operates 1,150 turbines and 25 offshore farms in operation worldwide.
Based in Denmark, Ørsted’s American operations are headquartered in Boston, Mass., with local headquarters in Atlantic City.
Denmark produced 43 percent of its total electricity consumption in 2017 through wind power, an increase of 33 percent since 2013 and 39 percent in 2014.
Ørsted built 25 wind farms across northern Europe and one in the U.S.
nited States at Block Island, Rhode Island. Built by Deepwater Wind, Block Island is a 30-megawatt, five-turbine wind farm that began operations in 2016.