OMNI Features｜Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy 2 Projects win New Jersey Offshore Wind Auction．EU Grid Operators Publish Offshore Network Development Plans

（Photo Source: energyRe）

｜Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy 2 Projects win New Jersey Offshore Wind Auction
Invenergy and energyRe's Leading Light Wind project, which is one of two winners in New Jersey's latest solicitation. The 2.4GW offshore wind project will create an estimated 7500 jobs and $3.7bn in anticipated economic development benefits for the state, said its developers. Leading Light Wind and Attentive Energy 2 will deliver 3.7GW of offshore wind in New Jersey's offshore wind solicitation round.

These benefits include localising a wind turbine tower manufacturing facility in New Jersey and performing marshalling activities at the New Jersey Wind Port, the expansion of the EEW American Offshore Structures monopile manufacturing facility and development of an in-state operations and maintenance port.

In addition to Leading Light Wind the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) awarded Corio Generation and TotalEnergies' 1342MW Attentive Energy 2 project a contract.

The state now has more than 5.2GW contracted, against its 2040 target of 11GW. Leading Light project received an award with a price of $112.50 per MWh. Meanwhile, Attentive Energy 2 bid received a price of $131 per MWh. Both projects are expected to enter operations in 2031, with Leading Light coming online in two 1200MW phases, with the second coming online in 2032.

｜EU Grid Operators Publish Offshore Network Development Plans
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) has published EU Offshore Network Development Plans (ONDP), the first comprehensive cross-border review of existing grid capacity and future offshore grid requirements at sea basin level.

The plans could help to accelerate the expansion of offshore wind and facilitate the deployment of innovative grid solutions to integrate offshore wind power into Europe's energy system. The ONDP highlight the financial and technical needs for grids to be developed and upgraded to accommodate additional new generation capacity from European offshore territories.

According to WindEurope, the plans give visibility to offshore wind developers, investors, and the grid equipment supply chain on the expected offshore grids for each European sea basin by 2030, 2040, and 2050. The EU currently has just under 20 GW of offshore wind and by 2050, it wants at least 300 GW, according to the industry organisation.

The ONDP even see 384 GW of offshore renewables in the EU by 2050 and 496 GW in Europe as a whole. To ensure the most efficient grid buildout possible, future grid connections should be designed at the sea basin level rather than at the national level. ENTSO-E presents five different ONDP – one each for the North Sea: the Atlantic Basin; the West Mediterranean; the East Mediterranean; and the Black Sea.

The ONDP see "significant" potential for hybrid offshore wind farms – that have connections to two or more countries. Hybrids could become an important part of Europe's meshed and interconnected offshore grid. According to ONDP 14 per cent of all offshore renewables could be connected as hybrids.

Refernece:Norwegian Offshore Wind｜Offshore Energy Biz