As a direct response to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s goal to promote the development of 3.5 GW of offshore wind in the state, EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE), a subsidiary of the EDF EN Group, has launched an initiative that includes acquiring Fishermen’s Energy’s long-embattled demo project.
EDF says it has been preparing for the New Jersey offshore wind market to open up since 2010. Its first step is to now sponsor a near-term project; in turn, the company has entered into a preliminary agreement with Fishermen’s Energy to acquire its 24 MW project, to be sited off the coast of Atlantic City.
“EDF RE is excited by the governor’s ambitious plans to be a leader in the offshore wind space, and we are eager to work with Fishermen’s Energy to provide an immediate opportunity for New Jersey to gain the benefit of local investment, jobs, infrastructure and experience,“ comments Doug Copeland, EDF RE’s regional project development manager. “The U.S. offshore wind industry is poised for tremendous growth, and we believe an early-stage project will help New Jersey develop the infrastructure to support this rapidly growing industry.”
According to EDF, the project will generate skilled offshore wind construction and operations jobs, positioning New Jersey’s workforce to build gigawatts of wind projects off New Jersey’s coast and up and down the Atlantic coast.
In support of the project, Robert M. Damminger, freeholder director of Gloucester County, N.J., says, “As one of the only major ports in New Jersey able to facilitate the large volume of shipping and construction activities under the governor’s ambitious offshore wind power plan, we are a proponent of the immediate opportunity to evaluate our facility and labor force in order to identify and upgrade infrastructure and workforce training. This will allow the Port of Paulsboro to take advantage of the subsequent waves of large-scale offshore development in the region.”
EDF RE says it brings strategic procurement capabilities throughout the entire supply chain. The company will leverage its procurement team, which has had supply agreements for more than 9 GW of onshore wind in North America throughout the past decade, as well as its long-term relationships with suppliers.
Kirk Meche, president and CEO of Gulf Island Fabrication Inc., a global provider of project management, construction and servicing of offshore facilities within the energy sector, comments, “This Atlantic City project is needed to establish New Jersey’s foothold in this new industry. The project can become a model for combining the Gulf Coast’s offshore fabrication experience with New Jersey’s labor, contractors and port infrastructure.”
Also praising the announcement is the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, which says in a statement, “A project like this one will create new jobs and hundreds of thousands of man-hours for our dock builders, divers, welders and millwrights. That’s money that goes directly into the pockets of thousands of hardworking men and women in New Jersey and will be spent in Southern New Jersey communities helping to boost local economies.”
EDF RE also anticipates that the project will further serve to improve environmental management by providing a laboratory for testing new avian monitoring and marine mammal sensing technologies.
“EDF RE looks forward to applying our innovation and investment to help Governor Murphy progress the promising New Jersey offshore wind sector that will ultimately provide much-needed reliability and relief to the regional grid,” states Hanson Wood, EDF RE’s director of special projects. “Our extensive experience with projects in the U.K., Belgium and France will enable us to promptly contribute to the offshore industry of New Jersey and deploy capital investment to bring this first project online by 2020.”
“New Jersey is well-positioned to become one of the first states to capture the energy and job-creating potential of U.S. offshore wind,” adds Nancy Sopko, director of offshore wind for the American Wind Energy Association. “The state will greatly benefit from growing the offshore wind industry, and EDF Renewable Energy’s proven wind development track record makes it a strong partner as the state begins to harness this new ocean energy resource.”
