The 1.5GW Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 1 is being developed in New Jersey, US. It is one of the two wind projects being developed offshore New Jersey, with Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 2 being the second wind farm. The two wind farms will have a combined capacity of more than 2.5GW and together will be the third largest wind project in the country.
Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind (ASOW) a 50-50 joint venture between Shell New Energies, a subsidiary of energy company Shell and EDF Renewables, a renewable energy company, is developing the projects.
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Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind 1 (ASOW 1), a subsidiary of ASOW, is developing the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 1. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJ BPU) granted an Offshore Renewable Energy Credits (ORECs) allowance to build the wind farm to ASOW 1 in June 2021.
Construction will begin in 2024 and the wind farm is expected to be ready for commissioning in 2027. It will produce enough electricity to power more than 700,000 homes.
Location of Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 1
Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 1 is being developed 10-20 miles (16km-32km) off the New Jersey coastline between Atlantic City and Barnegat Bay. The area includes the New York Bight acreage awarded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in February 2022.
The project site is spread over 102,124 acres (413.3km²) wind turbine area (WTA). At its closest point, the WTA is about 14km off the coast of New Jersey.
Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 1 – details
Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm will be installed with Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbines, which are designed for efficiency in offshore environments across the world. Up to 200 wind turbines will be installed at the two wind farms, with 105 to 136 wind turbine generators (WTGs) being installed at the project 1 site.
The wind farm also includes five offshore substations and three temporary meteorological and oceanographic buoys. The WTGs and offshore substations will have monopile-type foundations.
A new operations and maintenance facility will be built to ensure the safe and efficient functioning of the project. This will be in Atlantic City in New Jersey.
A permanent metrological tower will also be installed at the site.
Turbine details
The Vestas V236-15.0 MW wind turbine has a rated power of 15MW, cut-in wind speed of 3m/s and cut-out wind speed of 31m/s. It has a rotor length of 115.5m, a rotor diameter of 236m and a swept area of 43,742m².
Designed to last for up to 30 years, the turbine operates with an electrical frequency of 50/60Hz and is fitted with a medium-speed gearbox. It has an operating temperature range between -15°C and 23°C and a maximum noise level of 115.3dB(A).
Grid connection
The electricity generated by the turbines will be transmitted to offshore substations by 66kV-150kV high-voltage alternating current inter-array cables.
The transformers of the offshore substations will increase the electricity voltage to 230kV-525kV, which will be transported by export cables to the Monmouth landfall site in Sea Girt and the Atlantic landfall site in Atlantic City.
Onshore underground interconnection cables from the landfall sites will connect to new onshore substations. The onshore cables will continue further to existing onshore substations connecting to the electrical grid at the Cardiff substation and Larrabee substation in New Jersey.
Contractors involved
Vestas, a wind turbine manufacturer based in Denmark, was chosen as the preferred offshore wind turbine supplier for the project in October 2022. A nacelle assembly facility will be built by the company at the New Jersey Wind Port in Salem County to assemble and test the hub, heli-hoist modules and cooler top.
Denmark-based engineering and consultancy services provider Ramboll was selected to design the wind turbine foundations.
EEW American Offshore Structures, a manufacturer of foundations for the offshore wind power industry, was contracted to manufacture monopiles for the project under a pre-commitment and capacity reservation agreement.
Fugro, a geo-data specialist based in the Netherlands, is engaged in providing real-time wind and metocean measurements to optimise turbine design, installation and maintenance, under a two-year renewed contract signed in May 2021. The company previously performed site characterisation work for the project.
EDR, an environmental consulting and site design firm based in the US, was chosen as the lead environmental permitting consultant for the two wind farms.
Epsilon Associates, an environmental engineering and consulting company, is supporting ASOW with the state and federal permitting process for the two wind farms.
Sea Risk Solutions, a provider of information and risk mitigation to maritime interests, was contracted to assess the fishing activities taking place within the lease area.
Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 2 – details
Atlantic Shores offshore wind project 2 will be developed by Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind 2 (ASOW 2), a subsidiary of ASOW, based on ORECs granted by the NJ BPU.
Project 2 is expected to include 64 to 95 WTGs. It will be located 31,847 acres (128.9km²) east of the WTA. An overlap area of 16,102 acres (65.2km²) will be utilised by the projects.
The two projects are expected to create more than 22,200 direct and 11,800 indirect full-time jobs in construction, warehousing, professional services, manufacturing and transport.
