By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – With about four years to go before Danish wind-farm company Ørsted completes its roughly $1.6 billion Ocean Wind project off the southern New Jersey shore, it is already proposing to greatly increase the scope of the project.
On Dec. 10, Ørsted announced it put in a bid to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to develop Ocean Wind 2, which may be visible all the way down to Cape May.
The company is still in the planning and permitting phase for Ocean Wind, which can include as many as 99 wind turbines in a leased part of the Atlantic Ocean about 15 miles offshore. Ocean Wind, with the 853-foot-tall turbines, would be on a parcel stretching from about Atlantic City to Stone Harbor. The lease is with the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
That project goal is an 1,100-megawatt capacity – able to power 500,000 New Jersey homes and businesses – and to be operational in 2024.
Last week, Ørsted announced Ocean Wind 2, a project offered in response to Gov. Phil Murphy’s Offshore Wind Strategic Plan. The plan is going to award another 2,400 megawatts of capacity toward the state’s goal of producing 7,500 megawatts of green power via offshore wind by 2035.
Ocean Wind 2 would occupy the southern portion of the current lease area, according to Gabriel Martinez, Ørsted communications manager for the Mid-Atlantic region.
However, Martinez, responding to questions posed Monday, said he can’t comment yet on the number of turbines that would be part of Ocean Wind 2, how much power would be generated or the projected timeline for the construction and operations phase.
Martinez also said he could not yet comment on whether adding Ocean Wind 2 would have any impact on the transmission lines proposed for the original Ocean Wind project.
Those transmission lines were the focus of Ocean City Council at its Dec. 3 meeting, after a presentational by Ørsted’s Kris Ohleth.
Ørsted is considering using two of three proposed transmission line pathways from Ocean Wind to connect to the power grid on the mainland. One would go to Oyster Creek power station in Ocean County, one would go to Atlantic City and the other through Ocean City streets on the way to the former B.L. England generating station in Beesleys Point.
Council members raised objections to the entire project, worrying that having wind turbines visible on the horizon from shore would have a negative impact on tourism. Council’s only role in the project would be to approve a resolution allowing Ørsted to use the city’s right of way (its streets) to bury its lines. Because Ørsted is not a utility, it needs permission to use the right of way.
Council has not yet considered a resolution granting permission. Ohleth said she did not know how, or if, that would affect the Ocean Wind project.
If the Ocean Wind 2 project is constructed, it is possible the turbines there would be visible all the way to Cape May. The Ørsted website, oceanwind.com, has conceptual photos showing the view of the wind farm from communities along the southern New Jersey shore starting in Long Beach Island. It is visible through Stone Harbor, but not in the photos from Wildwood Crest and the Cape May National Wildlife Refuge in Lower Township.
Ocean Wind is going to cost all New Jersey ratepayers an extra $1.46 per month over the next 20 years on their utility bills. There was no cost to ratepayers offered for Ocean Wind 2.
Ocean Wind has a lifespan of 25 years, according to Ørsted.