Offshore Wind Wire

By Peter Brennan

Atlantic City, NJ, a city better known for its boardwalks and casinos, may have a new tourist attraction next year: six wind turbines less than three miles offshore.

Fisherman’s Energy, a New Jersey-based offshore wind developer, has begun the permitting process, and hopes to begin construction in the summer of 2011. If the project progresses according to the company’s timeline, Atlantic City will be host to the nation’s first offshore wind farm in October of 2011.

“We are moving properly and carefully ahead to have the project done by October 2011,” Fisherman’s Energy General Counsel Paul Gallagher told the Atlantic City Weekly.

The project – located in state waters – is the first of two that Fishermen’s Energy has planned for the Atlantic City area.  The second, larger phase would be in federal water.

The proposed wind farm in state water would generate an estimated 20 megawatt (MW) of power. Unlike other offshore wind proposals, the project has received significant local support in Atlantic City and neighboring communities, according to surveys released last year.

The local support may be due to the five-turbine, 7.5 MW onshore wind project built on the premises of the Atlantic County Utilities Authority wastewater treatment plant in 2006. That wind farm has been well received by locals and tourists alike, and has become an integral part of the Atlantic City skyline.

Gallagher hopes that the offshore turbines could become another attraction for a city that derives much of its income from tourism.

“It could be the Sydney Opera House of Atlantic City,” Gallagher told Atlantic City Weekly.

Another factor that could determine the project’s fate is the support of local fisherman. To date, local commercial fisherman have helped finance the project, and some hope to be re-trained to support the delivery of materials, crews and other personnel to the project site.