1 optional wind power route to B.L. England
By ERIC AVEDISSIAN/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY – Ørsted, a Denmark-based wind energy company, will conduct testing borings for underground cables in Ocean City as part of its project to build a wind farm 15 miles off of the south Jersey shore.
Property owners 200 feet from areas where the borings will be made received a letter dated Feb. 27 alerting them of the project.
Ørsted is applying for a Coastal Zone Management General Permit and a Freshwater Wetlands General Permit to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Land Use Regulation for work conducted in relation to the turbine project.
Dynamic Engineering Consultants of Lake Como, N.J. will conduct two geotechnical borings to a depth of 25 meters (82 feet) using a truck mounted drill for two days.
Letter recipients had 15 days to submit their comments to the DEP’s Division of Land Use Regulation.
According to a map provided with the letter, the boring locations will be off the beach at 35th Street and on the back bay at the foot of the 34th Street bridge.
The new wind farm is called Ocean Wind and will be constructed 15 miles off the coast of Atlantic City on the Outer Continental Shelf.
“Ocean Wind anticipates the test borings to begin in the coming months, based on pending permit applications,” said Ørsted spokesman Gabriel Martinez. “We are working closely with Ocean City officials to complete the work as quickly as possible and to limit our disruption of the roadways where the work will take place. The four test borings will be performed on Nautilus Drive and 35th Street. This work is an essential part of our evaluation for our interconnection of the power generated by the wind farm to the island-based grid, should we decide to locate the transmission facility at the former B.L. England facility in Upper Township.”
Ørsted spokespeople claimed the $1.6 billion wind farm would power 500,000 homes and bring over 1,000 jobs to the area.
GE Wind Energy will produce the Haliade-X 12 MW wind turbines, which are 853 feet tall, with rotor blade 351 feet long and 722 feet in diameter.
Underwater cables would come onto shore at Ocean City for connection at the retired B.L. England generating station in Upper Township, while another cable is planned for Atlantic City.
“We previewed the possible interconnection routes to the general public at our February open house events. As we have indicated to residents at our open houses, we are still evaluating our options for interconnection including B.L. England, Oyster Creek, and the Higbee substation in Atlantic City,” Martinez said.
Gov. Phil Murphy set an ambitious goal for the state to produce 50 percent of clean energy by 2030 and 100 percent clean energy by 2050. In November 2019, he announced an executive order for 7,500 megawatts of offshore energy by 2035, an increase of a previous goal to produce 3,500 megawatts by 2030.