After jointly winning the biggest site in the New York Bight offshore lease auction last month, RWE Renewables and National Grid have now officially named their joint venture Community Offshore Wind.
Accompanied by a tagline “Local clean energy for all”, the name will reflect the benefits the joint venture and the project will bring to local communities, according to the two partners.
“Community Offshore Wind is committed to delivering sustainable energy safely, reliably and efficiently to the communities we serve. It is important that everyone enjoys the benefits of the clean energy transition. It is the JV partner’s goal to build strong sustainable communities for the future” , the joint venture said in a press release on 9 March.
Will Hazelip , Vice President of National Grid Ventures, said: “This name for our offshore wind joint venture with RWE reflects that focus, and it reminds us each day that we’re here to responsibly develop projects that account for the needs of all of our stakeholder communities”.
In the New York Bight auction, RWE and National Grid secured the OCS-A 0539 lease area with a winning bid of USD 1.1 billion and plan to have the project in operation by the end of the decade .
The awarded seabed has the potential to host 3 GW of capacity, enough to power 1.1 million households, more than double than estimated in a base scenario by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
Upon announcing the name of their joint venture, RWE and National Grid said they shared a common goal of enabling the clean energy future. The two partners said offshore wind will be critical for the US, particularly in the Northeast, to reduce carbon emissions and meet climate goals, such as New York state’s target of bringing 9,000 MW of offshore wind online by 2035 and New Jersey’s target of delivering 7,500 MWs of offshore wind by 2035.
The region’s clean energy goals will also deliver significant new jobs and private investment to support the growth of the region’s economy, Community Offshore Wind said.