Offshore Wind

New Jersey’s plans to develop an offshore wind industry have been put on hold, but environmental groups continue to push for 100% clean energy.

Pending Issue

Last reviewed/updated 2/21/2025
Wind Farm Development Off the New Jersey Coast.

OVERVIEW

As a coastal state, we have the opportunity to harness the plentiful wind resources that exist just off the coast, driven by the reliable daily cadence of sea and land breezes. It takes less than a year to ‘pay back’ the greenhouse gas emissions required to manufacture and construct an offshore wind farm, leaving the remaining 2-3 decades of operation to generate carbon-free electricity.

New Jersey had planned to install turbines that would generate 11 gigawatts of energy off its shores, with the permitting and construction of several farms already underway at the start of 2025. A confluence of economic and political factors put these projects on hold on February 3, 2025.

The overwhelming majority of environmental groups support the responsible development of offshore wind energy. However, public understanding of environmental issues remains low, which has been leveraged by a vocal minority of residents to resist this change. PPA staff assist with educational events, attend relevant hearings and public engagement events, and stay up-to-date on relevant research through the NJ Wind Works Coalition. As a member of the coalition, we advocate for responsible development practices that maximize environmental co-benefits like artificial reefs, streamline onshore transmission, and repurpose existing fossil fuel infrastructure.

HISTORY

Governor Christie established in 2010—and subsequently recalled in 2016—the first attempt to build an offshore wind farm in New Jersey.

Governor Murphy issued a series of executive orders that restarted New Jersey’s push for an offshore wind industry and sequentially raised the state’s target for energy generation via offshore wind:

2018: 3,500 MW by 2030

2019: 7,500 MW by 2035

2022: 11,000 MW by 2040

The state provided further backing when the NJ Economic Development Authority constructed the New Jersey Wind Port which was meant to be “the nation’s first greenfield port designed, built and operated exclusively to support offshore wind projects”. The central location in Lower Alloways Creek, of Salem County was meant to serve as a hub for wind turbine construction for projects in NJ and the greater mid-Atlantic region.

BOEM identified Wind Energy Areas (WEA) that are most suitable for commercial wind activities, most of which have been leased to energy companies

Image from the BOEM interactive map of all leases and planning areas for offshore wind in the United States.

After the leading project Ocean Wind 1 was cancelled by Orsted in 2023, Atlantic Shores South became the frontrunner to become the first operational wind farm on the NJ coast. Construction was planned to start in 2024, and the first delivery of power was expected in 2027.

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order which established a “Temporary Withdrawal” from all pending offshore wind projects. At this point in time, Atlantic Shores South was the only NJ project with all of its federal permits in-hand. The executive order further indicated that all leasing and permitting practices would be reviewed, calling into question the viability of projects that have already received all of their federal approvals.

On January 30, 2025, Shell Oil company—which was a 50% backer of the Atlantic Shores—announced its withdrawal from the project. Then on February 3, 2025, Governor Murphy and the NJ Board of Public Utilities announced that they would not be accepting the Atlantic Shores bid in the 4^th solicitation that would have provided the requisite financial support for the project. This effectively put the Atlantic Shores South project on pause, despite having all of its federal permits in hand.

CURRENT STATUS

All progress on offshore wind farms in New Jersey has been paused, as of February 3, 2025.

With no offshore wind farm construction underway in New Jersey, the NJEDA is now seeking another use for the Wind Port located on the Lower Alloways Creek, in Salem County.

The New Jersey legislature has been making strides towards adopting a Clean Electricity Standard (CES) that would codify Governor Murphy’s goal of 100% clean energy by the year 2035. Read more about the legislation here. As federal actions threaten to change the trajectory of our country’s energy production, it is more important than ever that the state of New Jersey codify its commitment to our clean energy future.

HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED

Sign up for email updates from the NJ Wind Works Coalition with opportunities to submit public comments on environmental impact statements and permit hearings when activity resumes.

OFFSHORE WIND & THE PINELANDS

We welcome the climate and air quality benefits that offshore wind will bring, but would not allow the development to proceed in a way that compromises other environmental goals. PPA participates in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process that is carried out by BOEM to anticipate and mitigate environmental impacts—both positive and negative — to ensure that development proceeds in the most responsible manner possible.

PPA staff review environmental impact statements associated with each offshore wind project to assess impacts to both marine and Pinelands resources. The aspect most relevant to the Pinelands are the transmission lines that must cross the coastline to bring offshore wind-generated power onshore. We support the coordination of onshore transmission among multiple projects—as in the case of the planned Larrabee Tri-Collector Station in Howell Township—and the repurposing of existing fossil fuel infrastructure to serve clean energy production instead (see the example of the B.L. England Generating Station).

Specific points that we advocate for in our public comments to BOEM and the NJDEP:

We are advocating that partial decommissioning be made the default for all offshore wind projects, leaving the bottom-most parts of the wind turbines in place after the turbines are retired. It would be nonsensical to establish thriving reef communities, only to remove them at the end of the wind project’s lifecycle. As described in Smyth et al.’s 2015 paper on “Renewables to Reefs”, a partial decommissioning plan maximizes environmental benefits that can persist beyond the lifetime of the windmills themselves.

We are pushing for the discontinuation of sulfur-hexafluoride (SF₆), the most potent greenhouse gas known, in any energy infrastructure. This gas is used ubiquitously throughout the American power grid and is not unique to offshore wind; new energy projects and grid modernization present the opportunity to eliminate its use from our outdated infrastructure.

We support the regional approach that New Jersey has taken to conducting research and monitoring, leveraging the deep local expertise that can be found in New Jersey’s institutions of higher learning, such as Rutgers University, Monmouth University, and Stockton University.

We support the measures that BOEM has planned to mitigate potential impacts on the North Atlantic Right Whale (NARW). We acknowledge that the greatest threats to the NARW are entanglement in fishing gear, vessel strikes, and climate change, but we still urge the utmost caution in construction activities during the limited time window that these whales are passing through our region. We view this wind project as an important measure to protect the longevity of this species and that of other marine mammals from the deadly impact of collisions with the largest ships: by weight, 40% of maritime trade is dedicated to exchanging fossil fuels and petrochemicals (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), so reducing our dependence on fossil fuels through the development of offshore wind can have a direct impact on this problem.