Phil Murphy, a U.S. Democrat and a proponent of an ambitious offshore wind development plan for the State of New Jersey, has won the Garden State governor’s race.
In his campaign, Murphy presented a State Energy Master Plan which calls for 3,500MW of commissioned wind capacity offshore New Jersey by 2030.
The governor-elect committed to starting the process of creating the State Energy Master Plan within his first 100 days in office to set New Jersey on a path to 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
A recent poll has shown that 73% of surveyed New Jersey residents support the development of offshore wind farms.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) held a competitive lease sale for the Wind Energy Area offshore New Jersey in 2015.
RES America Developments Inc. was the winner of lease area OCS-A 0498 and US Wind Inc. won the lease area OCS-A 0499. The commercial wind energy leases went into effect on 1 March 2016.
Last year, DONG Energy acquired the rights for the OCS-A 0498 lease area offshore New Jersey from RES Americas Developments.