Wind Farm Proposed off Cape May County Coast
Cape May County Herald
By Herald Staff

NEWARK –– PSEG Renewable Generation and Winergy Power Holdings announced March 4 that they have submitted a proposal to the New Jersey Office of Clean Energy (OCE) to build a 350 megawatt wind farm about 16 miles off the coast of Cape May and Atlantic counties.

The wind farm would be called Garden State Offshore Energy and, subject to receipt of all required permits, financing and other conditions, could be fully operational in 2013. The project is expected to utilize an innovative construction methodology and create onshore construction jobs for New Jersey at a cost lower than other construction methods. The project is expected to consist of 96 turbines arranged in a rectangular grid as far offshore as commercially feasible to make it virtually invisible from land.

This proposal was submitted in response to a solicitation by the OCE, which was established by the NJ Board of Public Utilities. The solicitation was for formal proposals to build a large-scale pilot wind farm off the New Jersey shore in order to gain experience constructing and operating an offshore wind project and to determine if similar projects should be built.

If chosen by the OCE, the project is expected to apply for permits and conduct additional feasibility and environmental studies. The decision to build as well as final location, design and construction schedules could be affected by these studies.

"We are committed to maximizing the positive benefits of this clean energy project while limiting any negative impact that this might have on the Jersey shore communities or on the environment," remarked Nelson Garcez, vice president, PSEG Renewable Generation. "We believe that to see the wind turbines from land, you would need to use potent binoculars," added Garcez.

The companies announced that they will be forming a community advisory committee made up of local residents, elected and tourism officials as well as community, environmental and local business leaders.

"We've located the project as far offshore as possible in order to make offshore wind a positive resource for everyone," said Chris Wissemann, chief operating officer of Winergy. "New Jersey has been at the forefront on promoting solar energy and, with this project, it will move to the cutting edge of offshore wind power as well."

PSEG Renewable Generation is a subsidiary of PSEG Global and is part of the PSEG family of companies with headquarters in Newark NJ. This is PSEG Renewable Generation's first project though PSEG Global has experience with wind generation in Latin America and biomass generation in the U.S. and Europe. PSEG is a diversified energy company (NYSE: PEG - News) and parent of PSE&G with over 100 years of delivering safe, reliable energy to New Jersey consumers.

Winergy Power Holdings based in New York was formed to explore opportunities for offshore wind development on the eastern coast of the U.S. Winergy offices in New York, New Jersey and Texas handle permitting, development and engineering.