The state of New Jersey is investing in a $ 250 million production facility to build steel components, known as monopiles, for offshore wind turbines. It will serve the entire U.S. offshore wind industry.
New Jersey: a new leader in offshore wind
Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ) together with the German steel pipe manufacturer EEW, the Danish wind giant Ørsted, legislators and members of buildings, announced the plant on Monday. It will be built at Paulsboro Marine Terminal in Gloucester County, South Jersey and will create more than 500 high-paying jobs under full construction.
Murphy said:
Offshore wind is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that allows us to protect our environment while expanding and securing the state’s economy significantly in the immediate and long term. This is the largest industrial offshore wind investment in the United States to date and will create hundreds of high-paying jobs at a time when New Jersey’s economy has been ravaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Construction on the plant will break ground next month, and production will begin in 2023.
In June 2020, Murphy announced plans to develop the New Jersey Wind Port in Lower Alloways Creek, a first-in-nation infrastructure investment that will provide a location for important staging, assembly and production activities related to offshore wind projects. The New Jersey Wind Port and the new production facility at Paulsboro Marine Terminal place New Jersey as a leader in offshore wind and green energy procurement.
Dan Cosner, of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 351 and South Jersey Building Trades, said:
I’m proud to be a part of this milestone event that will provide long-term sustainable jobs for the Southern New Jersey economy, while helping the governor achieve his goals for his energy master plan and provide another milestone project that provides green energy.
Monopile foundations extend the turbine tower underwater and into the seabed. Are you curious about how offshore wind farms are built? Check out this video:
Electrek’s Take
This is Exactly the kind of thing that excites me when I write stories about green energy and what I hope to see much more of in the new few years.
New Jersey is creating long-term, well-paid jobs with this huge offshore wind production initiative. With the help of expert companies from Europe, it creates US-made renewable components that facilitate the development of offshore wind farms in the United States.
I would love to see similar initiatives in areas that were previously powered by fossil fuels to also provide green energy jobs to these workers. This is what Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) has identified is needed in a bill she introduced in July to support communities that have suffered job losses as a result of the death of the coal industry.
Photo: EEW
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