September 21, 2o23 — The stalling offshore wind industry has been the talk of the summer among supporters and foes in early adopter New Jersey. Now it’s official. A big headline in The Wall Street Journal this month proclaimed “U.S. wind-farm revolution is broken.”
The week before, world’s largest offshore wind-farm developer Ørsted announced that the nation’s first offshore wind farm off Atlantic City will start producing power a year later than planned, in 2026. The Danish company cited supply chain issues, higher interest rates and insufficient federal tax credits among reasons for the delay.
Ørsted has several other East Coast projects at earlier stages of development. These so far won’t be delayed, including a second wind farm off Atlantic City and ones in New York and Rhode Island. Two, in Maryland and Delaware, will be changed to make their finances acceptable to the company. The New Jersey Legislature and Gov. Phil Murphy sweetened the financing of the first farm earlier this year by allowing Ørsted to keep federal tax credits that were to be passed through to ratepayers.