A Danish off-shore wind company is expected to be opening an office in Atlantic City.
Gov. Phil Murphy made the announcement Wednesday at the International Offshore Wind Partnering Forum in Princeton.
Wind power company Orsted will be opening an office in Atlantic City next month and will immediately begin hiring, which will create hundreds of jobs. The company is the developer of Ocean Wind, a proposed wind farm set to be located 10 miles off the coast.
The Ocean Wind project is a 250-square-mile patch of the Atlantic Ocean about 10 miles off Atlantic City's coast.
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities president Joseph Fiordaliso says that wind power is the future of energy in the state.
“Off the coast of New Jersey is the best place for wind-generated power. On land we don't have the wind like they do out in the Midwest,” Fiordaliso says. “Right here in New Jersey, it's along the coast…and it will provide enough energy, if we complete our goal…to supply 20-percent of our residents."
The governor says the project would create about 1,000 jobs a year over two to three years during construction, plus about 100 permanent jobs.
Murphy says the turbines could produce about 3,000 megawatts of energy, or enough for about 1.5 million homes. He signed an executive order to begin the process of moving the state toward the goal of generating 3,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
Orsted President Thomas Brostrom says the decision to come to New Jersey shows the firm wants to help Murphy achieve his renewable energy goals.
The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.