Ørsted and EEW Investing in New Jersey Wind Port Project
New Jersey is taking the next steps in its effort to develop the New Jersey Wind Port as a center for the emerging offshore wind industry. In a plan announced on December 22, a southern Jersey remediation site will become the location for a new state-of-the-art component manufacturing facility for offshore wind turbines. The facility, which will be located in southern New Jersey on the Delaware River, will be the largest industrial offshore wind investment in the United States to date.
Ørsted, the Danish green energy company, and German manufacturer EEW will invest $250 million into the development of the wind capabilities. EEW has agreed to build a new manufacturing facility at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal. Construction on the facility, which will manufacture steel monopiles for the foundation of offshore wind turbines, will begin in January 2021 with production beginning in 2023. According to EEW, the factory will be capable of producing the world’s largest foundations required to support the increasing size of wind turbines.
“Wind energy is our future - it’s clean, it’s safe, and it offers the opportunity for New Jersey to be a dominate leader in creating a new sector of our economy,” said New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney. “Bringing offshore-wind manufacturers to New Jersey is key to making the state a hub of the supply chain for wind energy products and services. The new headquarters for EEW will locate a leading manufacturer of monopiles to the Paulsboro Terminal, where it will help make the port a thriving center of commerce.”
Officials speaking at the announcement of the new facility hailed it both as an engine for economic development in the region as well as a step in helping New Jersey become a leader in the emerging industry.
Plans for the New Jersey Wind Port, announced in June 2020 by Governor Phil Murphy, envisions creating a location for the staging, assembly, and manufacturing activities related to offshore wind projects on the East Coast. Called a first-in-the-nation infrastructure investment, the vision is to create a hub for the industry.
“Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that allows us to protect our environment while significantly expanding and securing the state’s economy for the immediate and long term,” said Governor Murphy. “This is the largest industrial offshore wind investment in the United States to date and will create hundreds of high-paying jobs. Coupled with the creation of the New Jersey Wind Port that I announced earlier this year, this investment will continue to cement New Jersey as the leader in offshore wind in the United States.”
Ørsted working with New Jersey power utility PSEG is working to develop New Jersey’s first utility-scale offshore wind field, the Ocean Wind project, due to come online in 2024. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said it selected Ocean Wind as New Jersey’s first offshore wind project for the economic benefits and supply chain development opportunities like Paulsboro Marine Terminal. The Board is currently soliciting proposals for phase two of Ocean Wind.
The effort to redevelop the port site began a decade ago as part of the remediation of a former BP Oil facility. The new EEW facility will use approximately 70 acres of the nearly 200-acre property. A separate proposal calls for using another portion of the site to become an LNG terminal.