By Heather Richards, Politico
Three offshore wind developers submitted bids for power contracts in New Jersey last week, in response to the state’s latest attempt to fortify its clean energy goals amid economic headwinds.
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, Community Offshore Wind and Attentive Energy each proposed projects to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) ahead of a Wednesday deadline. The bids are all for projects that could power hundreds of thousands of homes.
The state is seeking up to 4,000 megawatts of offshore wind power, as part of its effort to achieve a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2035. New Jersey also aims to install 11,000 MW of offshore wind by 2040.
The solicitation comes less than a year after Ørsted canceled its massive Ocean Wind project off the Jersey Shore, spurring the state to replace those lost electrons and bolster the confidence of the nascent wind industry. Inflation continues to hound projects and still threatens the White House’s efforts to reach 30,000 megawatts of wind power in U.S. waters by the end of the decade.
The bidding war comes with high stakes for wind companies, which need state contracts to help cover the cost of building their wind farms. They are among a cohort of developers that also paid record sums for wind leases in a competitive $4.4 billion auction by the Biden administration two years ago.
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