EnBW Moves Closer to US East Coast Offshore Wind

German energy company EnBW Energie-Baden-Württemberg AG is opening an office in New Jersey at the end of the year to serve as the base for EnBW’s participation in offshore wind opportunities in New Jersey and New York.

EnBW is opening its office in Jersey City, New Jersey with its national subsidiary EnBW North America Inc. New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy visited the Hamburg branch of EnBW during his tour of Germany this week.

“As part of my recently unveiled Economic Development Plan for New Jersey, our State will be making focused investments in the clean energy economy, and positioning New Jersey as a leader in offshore wind,” said Governor Murphy.

“Today’s announcement is an example of how our clean energy ambitions are being recognized by high value companies like EnergieBW, and we welcome their growth in New Jersey.”

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is leading the implementation of Governor Murphy’s executive order to move the state towards the goal of generating 3.5GW of offshore wind power by 2030. This is the nation’s largest offshore wind target to date.

Last month, BPU released a solicitation for the award of long-term offshore renewable energy certificates (OREC) which will provide the financing mechanism for up to 1.1GW of offshore wind energy capacity off the coast of New Jersey.

In addition, leases for additional offshore wind projects off the coast of New Jersey and New York will be auctioned by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). These new lease sites will likely be able to participate in the forthcoming BPU OREC solicitations in 2020 and 2022, each for 1.2GW.

“New Jersey has set ambitious targets for the expansion of offshore wind power. The discussions with Governor Philip Murphy have confirmed our resolve to bring our offshore expertise to this future market and so we are extremely delighted that we will have our own representative office in the local region in the future,” said Dr. Hans-Josef Zimmer, Chief Technical Officer of EnBW.

EnBW operates an offshore wind farm with a capacity of 336MW in Germany and is currently constructing two offshore wind farms with a capacity of 610MW. The He Dreiht offshore wind farm with a capacity of 900MW is due to be placed into operation by 2025 and will not require any subsidies.

EnBW will invest more than EUR 5 billion by 2025 in the further expansion of renewable energies. Alongside Germany, the company is focused on selected foreign markets in the Asia-Pacific region – such as Taiwan – and in North America.