NJBPU Takes the Next Step To Making Offshore Wind a Reality: Unanimous Vote Invites Bids For 1,100 MW of Offshore Wind

Environment New Jersey

Trenton – The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities at their monthly board meeting supported a major step forward to harness New Jersey’s offshore wind potential by a unanimous vote. NJ BPU voted to support inviting bids for 1,100 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind via Gov.  Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 8 by opening the application window for Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (ORECs). Last week, at the Global Climate Action Summit, in San Francisco, Gov. Murphy pledged to move forward with this solicitation and also called for future action on off-shore wind with solicitations of 1,200 MW in 2020 and 2022.

Doug O’Malley, Director of Environment New Jersey, issued the following statement:

“We’re facing rising seas, intensifying storms, and unprecedented health threats because we’ve relied so long on dirty energy sources.  But sitting right here next to us is the Atlantic Ocean, and offshore wind can provide a massive source of clean, renewable energy. Under Gov. Murphy’s Administration, New Jersey is jumpstarting our offshore wind industry by making bold pledges – and then working to achieve them. We have seen a breakneck pace at the BPU to move forward with offshore wind after the inertia of the Christie era, and it couldn’t be more welcome.

There’s no reason that New Jersey can’t be the national leader in offshore wind. The Board of Public Utility vote today on moving forward with the opening of the OREC window of 1,100 MW of offshore wind will bring us closer to achieving a massive clean, renewable energy future right within our grasp offshore. It’s time to go big on wind and the Murphy Administration is leading the charge.”

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Today’s NJBPU vote also buttressed the findings of the latest Environment New Jersey Research & Policy Center report on offshore wind potential, Wind Power to Spare: The Enormous Energy Potential of Atlantic Offshore Wind, which found:

• Winds blowing off the Atlantic coast could provide four times more electricity each year than the region currently uses, and 12 of the 14 coastal states have offshore wind potential that exceeds their current electricity consumption, including New Jersey.
• New Jersey is the top state in the country for off-shore wind because we have more offshore wind planned in terms of total capacity than any other state. If built, these projects off the Jersey Shore would supply electricity equivalent to seven times the annual electricity use of Newark.
• Even if these 14 states converted all activities currently powered by gasoline, natural gas and other fossil fuels (such as transportation and home heating) to electricity, the energy provided by offshore wind turbines could still produce twice as much power as they would use. New Jersey has a ratio of 3.7 to 1.6 for our current off-shore wind potential compared to our current electricity consumption and estimated electrified heat and transportation consumption.