Wind power targets face high hurdles; State subsidy sought for offshore turbines

Gov. Jon S. Corzine wants New Jersey to become the offshore wind power capital of the U.S., but an array of financial, environmental and other hurdles lies in his path.

Corzine wants several hundred wind turbines - built by companies and costing billions of dollars - to be generating clean, renewable electricity miles off the Jersey Shore by 2012, and hundreds more turbines by 2020.

The ultimate question for such a massive undertaking remains up in the air: Are the winds offshore strong enough to justify such a large investment?

And will the recession, which has hammered Wall Street, stanch the flow of money needed to build the wind turbines?

Garden State Offshore Energy, which plans to build 96 wind turbines 16 to 20 miles off Cape May and Atlantic counties, believes that offshore wind development will fail if projects "cannot demonstrate a predictable source of revenue," the company said in a draft funding proposal to the state.

Several environmental activists say Corzine's 2012 target may be unrealistic.

"I think there are a lot of obstacles. There are a lot of unknowns that are very important to know before such a large installation should go off our coast," said Jennifer Samson, principal scientist for Sandy Hook-based Clean Ocean Action, a coalition of 125 environmental, fishing and other groups.

However, "we're confident" the 2012 goal can be met, said Jim Lanard, head of strategic planning for Bluewater Wind New Jersey LLC. The Hoboken-based company wants to build a roughly $1.4 billion project with dozens of wind turbines more than 15 miles off Atlantic City.

Nearly three years ago, a state blue ribbon panel said a test project with up to 80 wind turbines should be built. The idea was to study the environmental and economic impacts and benefits of tapping offshore wind energy before building more projects.

Data from test project studies "should be used to determine if future development is necessary and/or appropriate," the panel's final report says.

But the state's plan for a pilot project has been modified because of Corzine's offshore wind goals for 2012 and 2020, according to Lance R. Miller, chief of policy and planning in the state Board of Public Utilities.

"In effect, there will be multiple projects," and information gleaned from them will be used to determine whether and what conditions need to be placed on future projects, Miller said.

The 2012 goal is "an aggressive target but one that we are taking every action to try to achieve," he said. "Not all of this is in our control, of course," including the need for federal approvals.

Many obstacles

The list of obstacles and challenges is daunting.

According to offshore wind company officials, activists and others, they include the need for:

A detailed state "road map."

Federal rules on offshore wind projects.

State approval of a steady source of revenue - through a surcharge on ratepayers - to help support projects. The BPU is considering creating such a revenue source, Miller said.

Meteorological towers to measure whether the offshore winds are adequate. Federal officials may approve ocean bottom leases for towers before April, and wind monitoring should last at least a year and maybe up to 18 months.

More studies on the risks to birds, marine mammals and other sea life.

Special ships to install turbines offshore. They likely will cost more than $100 million apiece, and none is available in the U.S.

"Unless the state changes what it's doing and the timing of it, I think it's more like 2015 by the time" offshore wind projects are built, said Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club's New Jersey chapter, which supports tapping offshore wind.

The 2012 goal is "not a bad target to have," said Paul Rosengren, a spokesman for Garden State Offshore Energy, a joint venture between PSEG Renewable Generation and Deepwater Wind.

But he "wouldn't be surprised if it slipped a little bit," with his company completing its project in 2013 or 2014, Rosengren said.

Meeting the 2012 goal will depend on the success of initial environmental and wind studies, "very smooth permitting at all levels of government" and the ability to get financing, he said.

Meanwhile, state-funded ecological studies in an area up to 23 miles offshore from Seaside Heights to Stone Harbor won't be finished until the end of this year, and some environmental activists say more research is needed.

Moreover, the White House Office of Management and Budget is still reviewing proposed federal rules that would govern offshore wind projects in federal waters more than three miles offshore, according to Nicholas Pardi, a spokesman for the federal Minerals Management Service.

Waves and the wind

Grays Harbor Ocean Energy Company LLC, Seattle, wants to build 100 platforms for a total of 300 wave energy converters 12 to 25 miles off Atlantic City - in the same general area as some wind turbine proposals. The wave devices would convert wave energy into electricity.

Wind turbines could be installed on the platforms, according to the Grays Harbor application.

The company believes that "it's necessary to do hybrid energy generation - wind and wave together - because the resources are complementary and the wave power can balance the wind power when the wind stops blowing," said W. Burton Hamner, company president.

Richard Dunk, research scientist/meteorologist at Rutgers University's Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, said he thinks there is "a real good wind resource" off New Jersey. But "we really wouldn't get good data" until meteorological towers are installed, he said.

"For any coastal state, if it's done right, I think (generating offshore wind power) definitely (is) a good thing and certainly going to help with our energy situation right now," he said. "But I think we have to make sure it's done environmentally right and have to make sure all the logistics" are covered.

"It's essential to have wind data because that's your fuel," said Daniel Cohen, president of Fishermen's Energy of New Jersey LLC, which wants to build an approximately $1.3 billion-plus project with about 70 turbines about 10 miles off Atlantic City. "If you don't have sufficient wind, then there's no point in building."