New Jersey draws Atlantic Shores and Attentive bids in ambitious offshore wind solicitation
East coast state is seeking up to 4GW of capacity in its Round 4, partly to replace projects cancelled by Orsted
Atlantic Shores and Attentive Energy have bid into New Jersey’s fourth solicitation for 1.2GW to 4GW of offshore wind generation capacity which closed late Wednesday (10 July), the companies announced.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), which oversees the northeastern state’s energy transition, did not say if it had received bids from other project developers.
Atlantic Shores is a joint venture (JV) comprised of EDF Renewables and the New Energies unit of Shell. Attentive Energy is owned by Corio Generation, a portfolio company of Macquarie; Rise Light & Power, a US energy asset manager based in Queens, New York, and Total Energies.
In a statement, Atlantic Shores said it had proposed two projects totaling more than 2.8GW capacity in its south lease area in federal waters facing southern New Jersey, enough power for more than one million homes.
Only the 1.51GW South Project 1 has an off-take contract with the state.
“The distinct advantages of an advanced permitting program, combined with an array of critical near-term supply chain investments and a mature interconnection plan, make Atlantic Shores Projects 1 and 2 the most competitive and deliverable projects proposed in NJ4,” the JV claimed in a statement.
Project 1 recently selected and started work with New Jersey-based infrastructure firms Riggs Distler to lead the Cardiff substation expansion program and Creamer-Jingoli to engineer and design the export cable route running from landfall in Atlantic City.
Earlier this year, BPU awarded Attentive Energy an off-take contract for its Attentive Energy Two (AE2) project, which has 1.34GW capacity, according to American Clean Power Association (ACP), a national trade group that tracks the US offshore wind industry.
“In this new proposal, 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 developer said in a vaguely worded statement.
Rise Light & Power is not an owner of AE2 with Corio Generation and Total Energies but is with the adjacent Attentive Energy 1 (AE1), which has 1.4GW of capacity, according to ACP.
Both projects require approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, a Department of Interior agency, which oversees sector development in federal coastal waters.
In May, Governor Phil Murphy and BPU announced the state would accelerate its offshore wind solicitation schedule, expediting the projected opening of a fifth round by one year to third quarter 2025.
The move came on the heels of BPU announcing that Orsted would pay $125m in penalties to New Jersey for the cancellation last year of its 2.25GW Ocean Wind 1 and 2 projects.
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