New Jersey Received Only Three Proposals in Fourth Round Wind Solicitation

Reports indicate that there was a lackluster response to New Jersey’s fourth round of solicitations for offshore wind projects. The state has already suffered setbacks after Ørsted walked away in October 2023 for what would have been the first large projects and the round that closed yesterday, July 10 received only two new proposals, one of which had been presented and rejected before, and a re-bid proposal for a third project.

This comes despite strains on the power grid across the Northeast United States as the states are having a hot summer, setting new high-temperature records, and are expecting continued heatwaves in the coming weeks. The recent temperatures surpassing the 100-degree Fahrenheit “feels like” for days prompted a widespread Heart Advisory in New Jersey and elsewhere. Further, the state’s grid operators forecast that electric load growth of nearly 40 percent over the next 15 years.

The most developed of New Jersey’s offshore wind projects, Atlantic Shores, which is a joint venture between Shell New Energies US and EDF-RE Offshore Development, took advantage of the opportunity to submit a re-bid for the two phases of its project. They highlight that they recently received Record of Decision from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, concluding the intensive review process. They expect to have full federal and state approval for both projects by the end of the year.

Combined the projects would have a capacity for 2.8 GW of electricity. The company did not detail the terms of the re-bid, likely adjusting its pricing. Instead, it emphasized that it is the most mature of the state’s projects and likely poised to become the first to reach operation.

Attentive Energy, which is a partnership between TotalEnergies and Corio Generation, also participated in the fourth round. The company’s project was selected in January 2024 in the third-round solicitation and it also sought a project in New York State, in the state’s recently canceled third round. 

The company did not announce details of its second submission to New Jersey. They said in a public statement, “Attentive Energy proposes to New Jersey a consistent and holistic vision prepared to build off of the momentum and early successes of its AE2 project.”

The third submission came from Community Offshore Wind, a partnership between RWE and National Grid. The company is saying that it revised its previous submission without providing details. The previous submission, which was not selected by New Jersey, called for a project 37 miles east of Long Beach Island’s Barnegat Light. It would have had a capacity of 1.3 GW.

The new proposal is for a project in the same lease area. The companies indicated construction could begin by 2027 or 2028 and the project would be operational by 2031.

New Jersey had set a goal of 1.2 to 4 GW in this round. The NJ Board of Public Utilities is promising to announce its decision by December. At the same time, the state is anxious to move forward and in May Governor Phil Murphy and the Board announced they would accelerate the fifth round. It had been scheduled for the third quarter of 2026 but will now be conducted in the second quarter of 2025.

By advancing New Jersey’s solicitation schedule, the Murphy administration said it would build upon the momentum of the state’s offshore wind industry, bringing additional economic benefits and jobs to the Garden State. New Jersey is well situated with the New York Bight which set a record of nearly $4.4 billion for that total bid amount when the Department of the Interior auctioned the leases in February 2022. The state has a goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2035 and 11 GW of offshore wind installed by 2040, but so far has no wind projects approved and under construction.