DONG to Build New Wind Farm - and to Dismantle World's First

RES America Developments has agreed to transfer an offshore wind development lease to Danish offshore wind giant DONG Energy.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sold a lease for commercial offshore wind to RES in November, one of two on the Outer Continental Shelf off New Jersey, with capacity for over 1 GW of wind power.

The Bureau would have to approve the rights transfer to DONG. The two firms have had a cooperation agreement in place since 2014, and the transfer would take place within the agreement's framework; RES would provide project development services for the proposed installation.

RES transferred its lease offshore Massachusetts to DONG in 2015. The Bureau granted approval for that agreement following a review of DONG's technical and financial qualifications.

“With the transfer of the offshore wind development projects in the U.S., we are broadening our international scope. The site conditions are quite similar to those we currently work with in northwestern Europe, which means that the project could be developed using well-known technology,” said Samuel Leupold, DONG's executive vice president of wind power.

The New Jersey lease area covers about 160,000 acres from seven to 21 nautical miles off the coast in water depths of about 75 feet.

The lease area to be transferred is 160,480 acres and is located between 7 – 21 nautical miles from shore, with water depths around 24 meters.

Separately, DONG announced Tuesday that it will decommission the world's first commercial offshore wind farm, Vindeby, off the island of Lolland, Denmark.

The small 11-turbine farm has been rendered obsolete by 25 years of technological improvements, and DONG says that its total output is less than that from one large modern turbine. By comparison, the firm's latest project, Hornsea Project One offshore Britain, will be the world's largest, generatng roughly 500 times Vindeby's power.