Toms River, N.J.-based Delsea Energy LLC, an owner, developer and operator of wind energy facilities, has filed initial permit applications with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the area's first utility-scale offshore wind farm project, which the company says will power over 125,000 New Jersey households.
The initial permits would authorize installation of a data collection and monitoring station in the Delaware Bay. This station is the first phase of a project that will ultimately include 100 or more wind turbines in the nearshore or shallow waters of the upper Delaware Bay, Delsea Energy says.
‘This project can fulfill 13 percent of Gov. Corzine's visionary energy master plan goals for offshore wind power,’ says John Renz, Delsea Energy's vice president of business development. ‘These turbines, located in shallow water, are easier to build than the ocean-based deep-water turbines. That means that we can deliver jobs and opportunities, along with a substantial amount of clean energy, more quickly to New Jersey residents.’
The wind turbines proposed for the Delaware Bay would be located between one and two miles offshore, 2,000 feet from the main shipping channel, in an area extending from just north of the Miah Maull Shoal to an area just north of the Ship John Shoal Lighthouse.
Delsea Energy anticipates that the initial studies will take a full year to complete, after which the precise number and placement of turbines can be determined for subsequent NJDEP and USACE permit applications.
SOURCE: Delsea Energy LLC
