What's expected to become New Jersey's first offshore wind farm has secured a major federal approval.

The U.S. Department of the Interior has given the green light to the Atlantic Shore's south offshore wind energy project.

It would generate 2800 megawatts, enough to power nearly 1 million homes.

The project would be built between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island, just about nine miles from the shoreline, and would include roughly 195 wind turbine generators.

The news gives a boost to the state's plan to reach 100% clean energy by 2035.

That was set off track last fall when the Danish wind developer Orsted, scrapped their offshore wind project over financial concerns.

Joining me now is your Joris Veldhoven, CEO of Atlantic Shores.

Joris, thanks for joining me.

Thanks for having me.

Good to be here.

So let's talk about what is the significance of today's announcement for the Atlantic Shores Project.

Yeah, much appreciate it.

So what we what we saw today is that we got a record of decision for our first two projects.

Atlantic Shore's predict one and two.

We are, as you know, an offshore wind developer, and that allows us to sort of move forward, keep contracting with contractors and move forward to deliver clean, renewable power for the state of New Jersey.

Joris, the Orsted project was roughly at the same point in the approval process when the Danish wind developer pulled the plug on it last fall.

So how is this project different?

I think it's especially relevant in light of what happened last year because what you have seen over the last two is that all offshore wind developers in the U.S., we went through this journey last year which started to spiral.

That was the case for IRS.gov, and that's the case for projects as the case for many other projects.

And what you have now is our project being the first New Jersey project, being completely ready from a federal permitting perspective with our record of decision today in our court later this year.

So it's actually good news.

It means that offshore wind projects in New Jersey are being able to move forward and can succeed.

Let's talk about the significance of a timeline.

What's the timeline for when we could see turbines in the water off the coast and when we could actually see the wind power come onshore?

Yeah.

So these are multi-year projects.

I mean, just to give you a bit of a frame of reference, we submit the permits that came through today in the record of decision about three and a half years ago.

It also means that by the end of the year, we are now finally shovel ready for both our Project one and Project two.

And that means that construction can start in earnest.

That's not yet offshore construction.

It starts with manufacturing components onshore.

I mean, transition into offshore construction around 2026, 2027.

And with the majority of the turbines being installed in late 2028.

So to come back to your question, it will not be before 2029 when you see offshore wind, renewable power flowing to the state of New Jersey.

But, you know, that's the nature of these projects.

We're talking multi-billion dollar construction projects that take years and years to just, you know, develop and construct.

You know, when you have a lot of support, sometimes there's pushback, Right?

Some beach communities have criticized this project because it's less than nine miles from shore and that they'll be visible from the shore, possibly impacting tourism, which is critical here in Jersey.

Others are concerned about the effect of wind turbines on marine life.

So what is your response to those concerns?

Yeah, everything.

Everything that gets developed at scale needs to be done in a responsible manner.

And we have done over 40 surveys just to get the permits and the record of decision that we got through today over the course of many years, including long, long tenure and all stewardship studies that took years and years of data collection.

So I think there's there's genuine concerns.

We also need to make sure that the right facts keep on being shared and we ourselves, as Atlantic shores, will play a role in making sure that all the communities, not just the beach communities, but all communities in New Jersey, get transparent updates on our project.

And we've always we've always been transparent on our project.

The facts also do matter.

You know, you've seen along the East Coast here in the U.S., we have construction going on at multiple sites, not here in the U.S. You don't need to look at Europe.

You don't need to look at other countries like far away.

You can go here in Europe and you'll see the construction of offshore wind is absolutely can be done in a very, very safe manner.

And Atlantic Shores is a responsible developer and we look forward to next year or started the construction phase.

Yep.

I couldn't agree.

More facts and transparency matter.

Joris, thank you for joining me.

Pleasure to be here.

Thanks for having me.