Orsted puts up $100M guarantee that it will build New Jersey's first offshore wind farm by 2025
The Danish wind energy company Orsted has put up a $100 million guarantee that it will build New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm
OCEAN CITY, N.J. — The Danish wind energy company Orsted has put up a $100 million guarantee that it will build New Jersey's first offshore wind farm.
But it will lose that money if the project is not operating by Dec. 2025 — a year after the deadline approved by state utility regulators.
New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities approved an agreement Wednesday with Orsted under which the company would forfeit the money if the project is not up and running within 12 months of a series of deadlines previously ordered by the board.
Those deadlines call for the project to reach commercial operation in stages by May 1, Sept. 1 and Dec. 1, 2024. But it would forfeit the guarantee money if the project is not operational by December 2025.
The money put up on Oct. 4 by Orsted and placed in an escrow account was required under the terms of a law Gov. Phil Murphy signed in July allowing Orsted to keep federal tax credits that it otherwise would have had to return to New Jersey ratepayers.
The Democratic governor, who wants to make New Jersey the East Coast hub of the nascent offshore wind industry, said the tax break was needed. He said it would help Orsted complete the project in the face of financial challenges buffeting the industry. which also faces substantial political opposition, mostly from Republican legislators and their supporters.
As an example, on Thursday, New York regulators rejected a request from companies for larger subsidies to complete large-scale wind, solar and offshore wind projects, saying the expected the companies to abide by the terms of their deals with the state.
Orsted said
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