But industry advocates say earlier wind farm shows benefits to tourism and limited impact if far offshore
Opposition to New Jersey’s coming surge in offshore wind farms is growing at the Jersey Shore.
The hundreds of wind turbines due to be built up to 20 miles off New Jersey in the next five years or so will spoil ocean views, undermine local economies and hurt wildlife while boosting the profits of overseas developers, critics say.
These opponents reject claims by wind farm builders and their enthusiastic supporters, including Gov. Phil Murphy, that the clusters of turbines are emissions-free. The manufacture and maintenance of the massive steel structures will require huge amounts of fossil fuel-powered energy, they argue.
They also say they fear that the tourism-dependent economies of many Shore towns will be damaged if visitors flee because they don’t want to look at an array of wind turbines on the horizon, or if the new structures disrupt marine life so much that recreational and commercial fishermen stay away.
And if fewer people want to spend time at the Shore, real estate values of coastal properties will drop, the critics predict.
“If people decide they don’t want any part of coming here, they will go elsewhere,” said Suzanne Hornick, administrator of SaveourshorelineNJ, a Facebook page that’s dedicated to opposing the industry, and has about 3,100 members.
Hornick, who lives in Ocean City, said she fears the town will be devastated by wind farms. “If tourism, and recreational and commercial fishing collapses then our restaurants collapse and our schools go to hell and the next thing you know people move off the island, and you have no community at all,” she said.
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More delays for wind farm off Delaware coast (Cape Gazette)
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Mass. starts round three of bidding for offshore wind energy contracts (Boston Globe)
Siemens Energy in-turbine transformers for China’s first high-voltage offshore wind farm (Recharge)
Critics are focused on Ocean Wind, a planned wind farm that will consist of about 100 turbines about 15 miles off Atlantic City. The project, New Jersey’s first, is due to generate 1,100 megawatts (MW), or enough to power about 500,000 homes, starting in 2024.
The developer, Denmark’s Ørsted, says visibility of the turbines from the shore will depend on atmospheric conditions. But Hornick said Atlantic City’s tallest building, the former Revel casino, is clearly visible from Ocean City, 16 miles away, or about the same distance as the Ocean Wind turbines will be from the Jersey Shore.
Afraid the turbines will be eyesores
At some 850 feet tall, the turbines planned for Ocean Wind will be higher than the 735-foot casino building, and so will be an eyesore on the horizon, she said.
At night, the wind farm will be lit to warn ships and air traffic of their presence, and that will be another visual violation, Hornick said. “These things are going to be so brightly lit, it’s going to look like an industrial park. The days of moonlight beach strolls are gone, and that’s not OK with us.”
But the visual impact could be reduced using lights that only come on when they are activated by radar from nearby ships or airplanes, according to Atlantic Shores, another project planned for an area between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light on Long Beach Island. That project, a 50-50 joint venture between Shell New Energy and EDF Renewables, is being reviewed by the Board of Public Utilities, and could generate up to 2,300 MW starting in 2027.
The two New Jersey projects are among 15 that are currently proposed for the northeastern and mid-Atlantic coasts. On Monday, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said it has completed its environmental review of Vineyard Wind, an Ørsted project off the coast of Massachusetts that is likely to be the first U.S. commercial-scale wind farm to begin operating. Advocates said the announcement was a sign that the Biden administration is serious about kick-starting the offshore wind industry after years of delay.
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Seven East Coast states including New Jersey have committed to buying more than 28,000 MW of offshore wind power in the next 15 years, and some power-purchase agreements such as that for Ocean Wind, have been signed.
Asked how the European offshore wind industry has been able to overcome any environmental or economic problems since becoming established some 20 years ago, Hornick said she believes that Europeans are more likely to accept what their governments tell them than are Americans.
Distance makes a difference
Despite concerns about damage to tourism, research from the University of Rhode Island into the effects on tourism of a small wind farm — the first of its kind on the East Coast — that has been operating off nearby Block Island since 2016 found that occupancy and revenue increased on the island after the wind farm was built because visitors wanted to see it for themselves.
And a University of Delaware study last year found that tourists have fewer problems with offshore wind farms the further away they are. Twenty-nine percent said they wouldn’t visit the beach if turbines were 2.5 miles away but only 5% said they would be put off if the farm was 20 miles away — the outer limit for the Atlantic Shores project.
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