Image credit is: Ørsted Offshore North America

By Troy Patton, Head of Program Execution, Ørsted Offshore North America

Clean energy history was made with the recent signing of the Inflation Reduction Act. Its momentous investment in climate and clean energy delivers a solution that holds tremendous benefit for our nation, specifically more American jobs and American energy.

As the world’s leading offshore wind energy company, Ørsted brings decades of experience, valuable industry partnerships and unmatched offshore wind energy expertise to each project. We’ve delivered more than 28 offshore wind farms and 17 offshore transmission systems across the world. We’re a trusted partner to New Jersey, working to deliver the first of several offshore wind projects that will help the state reach its 2035 goal. We’ve partnered with PSEG, the highly-respected New Jersey-based utility with vast transmission experience and the highest reliability scores in the Mid-Atlantic region for the last 20 years, to deliver the state’s first offshore wind farm, Ocean Wind 1. We’ve set down roots in Newark with plans to open our North American IT headquarters this year, and we aim to break ground on an operations and maintenance facility in Atlantic City this fall. We will be the first company to utilize the NJ Wind Port. Our manufacturing investments at the Port of Paulsboro and higher education partnerships with Rowan, Rutgers, Stockton, Montclair, Monmouth and NJIT demonstrate our long-term, local commitment to the state.

In addition to our local Ocean Wind projects, we are again partnering with PSEG on Coastal Wind Link to bring offshore wind to New Jersey homes and businesses. It is a unique design that would use an innovative, “meshed grid” offshore transmission design similar to  well-developed onshore transmission grids. It seamlessly routes power to areas, as needed, and employs multiple points of interconnection for reliability and resiliency, which are priorities for New Jersey leaders and customers.

Consider mobile mapping applications like Google Maps or Waze that seamlessly reroute a traveler if an issue is detected, such as road construction or a traffic jam that adds time and frustration to the travel experience. This rerouting capability optimizes the traveler’s itinerary by locating a detour in real-time to their destination. It also alleviates additional congestion near the issue, rerouting further traffic to the area until the situation is resolved. Coastal Wind Link’s concept is very similar: by building an interconnected offshore grid, power can be rerouted to where it is needed most onshore, at a specific time. It’s a truly flexible, scalable system that avoids power curtailment, securing offshore power distribution at any time.

New Jersey’s forward-thinking transmission solicitation is leading the way for other states. New York’s recent offshore wind solicitation requires proposals be  “meshed ready.” This requirement was based on the recommendations of the New York State Power Grid Study, to facilitate a system that can grow over time and provide greater reliability and reduced energy prices. New Jersey has positioned itself to be a strong regional and national leader by moving ahead with this solicitation and seeking comprehensive, long term and cost-effective clean energy solutions for its residents.

We have a limited window of opportunity to accelerate the clean energy transition. The impacts of climate change have been seen up and down our 130-mile coastline: flooding, extreme heat, coastal erosion, and historic storms like Hurricane Sandy throughout our communities. New Jersey, however, has long recognized the need to act. Through aggressive clean energy goals, innovative strategies for regional transmission, and the leadership of Governor Murphy and the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the Garden State is poised to become a hub of the offshore wind industry.

It takes visionary leadership to advance this type of project, and New Jersey’s bold solicitation for a future transmission grid matches perfectly with Coastal Wind Link’s proposals. The Coastal Wind Link project team possesses the vital experience to build this type of project, avoid cost overruns and construction  delays, and bring the most reliable and future-proof solution that meets New Jersey’s ambitious clean energy goals. For more information on the project, visit https://coastalwindlink.com.

This is sponsored content from PSEG