Atlantic City Weekly

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The diagram above roughly depicts where the proposed wind farms would be located.

As New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine set an ambitious goal last year to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity through wind turbines located off the state's coast by 2012, he set off a flurry of activity and projects. At least three companies are working to meet the governor's tight timeline and construct wind turbines off the southern New Jersey coast.

But beachgoers and boaters in Atlantic and Cape May counties aren't going to suddenly see wind turbines popping up miles out to sea. The turbines are still in the future. This year, however, could be the year of the meteorological tower, structures designed to test the viability of the proposed sites.

"The main point of the structures is to test the wind patterns," says Paul Rosengren, spokesman for PSE&G Renewable Generation, which plans to build an about 100-turbine wind and wave farm about 16 miles off the coast of Avalon in Cape May County. The company is partners with Deep Water Wind to form Garden State Offshore Energy.

"But the towers also contain radar to track bird migrations and sonar to track the movement of sea life," says Rosengren. "It's both a test of the viability of the site and an environmental test at the same time."

Two other companies have also been approved to construct wind farms. Fisherman's Energy, based in Cape May, has proposed a two-phase farm about three and seven miles off the coast of Atlantic City respectively. Bluewater Wind, based in Hoboken, has proposed a wind farm about 15 miles off the coast southeast of Atlantic City. All three projects hope to generate about 300 to 350 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 125,000 homes each. The state has granted each company, through the state Board of Public Utilities, about $4 million in rebates to construct the meteorological towers by the end of the year.

But to do that, the companies must first clear state and federal environmental approvals. When built, the stations will likely operate for about 18 months.

"We want to study the winds for a full year, and then a good chunk of a second year to make sure the first year wasn't unusual," says Rosengren. "You don't want to spend this type of money for a project this size [about 1$ billion] and find that there's no wind."

The wind itself, of course, is not the only consideration. The New Jersey coast is a major route for migratory birds and the effect of wind farms on bird populations has not been conclusively studied. There are also no other offshore wind farms in the U.S. to compare the effect on sea life. While environmental groups have praised the state's commitment to clean renewable energy, the quick pace of the projects has raised alarms for some groups.

The Middelgrunden Windfarm just outside Copenhagen harbour, Denmark, is an example of an offshore wind farm.

"Our concern is that we really haven't had any large-scale projects off the coast that we can compare this to," says Jennifer Samson, principal scientist for Clean Ocean Action. "We don't really understand what the effect on marine organisms and birds is going to be. The state is doing an environmental impact study, but we feel that not enough time is being allowed to really see what the impact will be."

Clean Ocean Action supports extensive studies before construction (which could start as early as 2010) during and after construction. The organization is also concerned that the state has abandoned the idea of a pilot program to test wind farms. Initially, only Garden State Offshore Energy was approved to build. But as the state increased its wind energy goals (1,000 megawatts by 2012, 3,000 megawatts by 2020) the Bluewater Wind and Fisherman's Energy projects were also approved.

"The state did make a choice to move faster," Rosengren says. "But there was also a risk involved with having only one pilot program. If that site doesn't prove viable, you have nothing else in the works."

Samson, however, is worried that the speed of the projects in New Jersey and elsewhere along the coast could lead to problems. Several states, including Delaware and Rhode Island, are also pursuing offshore wind farms. And New Jersey has already seen new proposals come in, including a proposal by a Seattle Based firm to build a massive project capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity 10 miles off Atlantic City.

"We completely support clean alternative energy sources, but the point is that there has never been anything like this before," Samson says. "And when you think about all the other coastal states who are also pursuing this, I think we have to be very careful. We have to make sure that we do this the right way and make the right choices."

One of the biggest concerns is the effect all these turbines would have on migrating birds and sea life. Other concerns are whether the turbines would obstruct shore views and their effects on shipping lanes. The companies, however, feel that southern New Jersey, partially due to a high seabed, is an area that can avoid these problems. The largest sites are located far offshore, meaning that they will only be slightly visible on extremely clear days, and hopefully, out of bird migration routes, which tend to hug the coast.