Denmark's DONG Energy will take over an offshore New Jersey wind lease previously held by RES Americas Developments that had been awarded to RES in an auction held by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in November 2015.
The New Jersey lease encompasses 160,480 acres, approximately 10nm offshore in 80ft of water. DONG said the area could potentially accommodate more than 1000MW of offshore wind. DONG's acquisition of the lease is still pending approval from BOEM.
“The US is an interesting market for offshore wind with the potential to become a significant area for future development," says Samuel Leupold, executive vice president of wind power, DONG Energy. "With the transfer of the offshore wind development projects in the US, 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.”
The New Jersey lease is the second US lease area for DONG Energy. The first was acquired in June 2015, off the coast of Massachusetts. That project, Bay State Wind, calls for the construction and operation of of a utility scale offshore wind farm off the southern coast of Cape Cod. With water depths between 130-165ft, this site sits approximately 15nm from shore. Bay State Wind is proposing to use that site to build a utility scale offshore wind farm with an installed capacity of up to 1000MW.
Back in July, the foundation was laid for the first US wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. The company behind it, Deepwater Wind, has planed a US$290 million 30MW, five-turbine project called Block Island Wind Farm. It aims to have the project online by Q4 2016.
Image: DONG Energy
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