Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) — Bechtel Group Inc., the U.S.
contractor that built the Hoover Dam, has been hired for a
Google Inc.-backed project to deliver offshore wind power to
electricity users in New Jersey.
Bechtel will construct the first segment of the New Jersey
Energy Link, a $1.8 billion system of undersea and onshore
transmission cables as well as power converter “hubs,” project
developer Atlantic Grid Development LLC said in an e-mailed
statement. The link, which will span the state’s coastline when
its three phases are completed, may carry as much as 3,000
megawatts of electricity.
“The transmission system in New Jersey could benefit
greatly from this line,” Atlantic Grid Chief Executive Officer
Robert Mitchell said by telephone. “It will be the most
efficient way to deliver offshore wind to shore,” he said.
There are no U.S. offshore wind farms operating or under
construction, though companies have been planning to install
turbines at sea for more than a decade. The government this year
will hold the country’s first competitive lease auction for
sites near Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Virginia, and is
calling for projects totaling 10,000 megawatts of capacity to be
installed nationwide by 2020. It awarded two leases, in
Massachusetts in 2010 and in Delaware in October, through non-
competitive offers each involving a single company.
‘Strong Bipartisan Support’
Atlantic Grid, based in Chevy Chase, Maryland, is focusing
on New Jersey because of the state’s “strong bipartisan support
for offshore wind,” Mitchell said. A 2010 law created an
incentive program for as much as 1,100 megawatts of offshore
wind generation. “New Jersey is further along than any of the
other states,” he said.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities may begin
accepting applications from developers this summer, Bob
Marshall, an assistant commissioner, said in an e-mail. The
federal government may award offshore wind leases in the state
by November 2014, he said.
Mitchell’s company in 2010 announced a larger project, the
Atlantic Wind Connection, that would link wind farms off the
coasts of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. After
initial planning “we have landed on New Jersey as being the
prime opportunity to move forward,” Mitchell said. “If other
states down the road decide they want to adopt the plan that we
have announced, it will be their decision,” he said.
Bechtel is expected to begin construction in 2016, with the
New Jersey Energy Link’s first segment possibly beginning
operations in 2019, according to the statement. The company will
install the project’s “backbone,” including high voltage
direct-current cables that will carry the offshore wind energy
to shore.
French power equipment maker Alstom SA will advise on
connecting the systems to PJM Interconnection LLC’s grid. In
addition to Google, the project’s other equity investors are
Marubeni Corp., Bregal Energy Inc. and Elia System Operator SA.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Andrew Herndon in San Francisco at
aherndon2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
