A new hub for New Jersey’s budding offshore wind power industry is coming to South Jersey, what officials tout as the first port built specifically for the purpose of offshore wind in North America.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday announced plans to build a new port in Salem County to support the development of offshore wind farms off the Jersey Shore.
Officials say the New Jersey Wind Port will create 1,500 permanent jobs, generate $500 million in annual economic activity, and help the state reach its goal of gradually relying more on so-called clean energy.
The facility is set to be built on the same artificial island that is home to the Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant and Salem Nuclear Power Plant in Lower Alloways Creek.
Officials say the New Jersey Wind Port will create 1,500 permanent jobs, generate $500 million in annual economic activity, and help the state reach its goal of gradually relying more on so-called clean energy.
“This is a big deal,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the state’s Economic Development Authority. “We think this is the best situated site in the Northeast and in North America to support the offshore wind industry.”
Sullivan spoke of an opportunity to “make New Jersey and South Jersey the capital of American off-shore wind.”
Murphy said the move is part of New Jersey’s longterm economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity,” the Democratic governor said during his daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “The emerging offshore-wind industry is one that gives us this tremendous growth potential, and offers this opportunity to position ourselves as a leader in an emerging global industry that will create jobs for the years to come.”
Murphy said this is especially crucial for South Jersey, which he said is "a part of the state that needs economic development.”
“We desperately need jobs, good-paying union jobs, in places like Salem County," he said.
The project will be a partnership between the EDA and private-sector companies, such as PSEG.
Construction will begin in 2021, with a 25-acre manufacturing site and a 30-acre marshaling and staging site coming first. It will create hundreds of manufacturing jobs, officials said.
Murphy also said this is a “critical” part to reaching his goal of generating 7,500 megawatts by 2035 and having a 100% “clean-energy economy” by 2050.
“This is a big deal,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the EDA. “We think this is the best situated site in the Northeast and in North America to support the offshore wind industry."
The port will serve as the point where wind turbines are constructed and then loaded onto ships. The ships will then take the turbines out to sea, and install them at their final location. Standing more than 800 feet tall, the turbines will tower higher than the Washington Monument.