TRENTON, N.J. (1010 WINS) -- New Jersey will start building a giant wind port next year in an effort to bolster an economy ravaged by COVID-19 and meet clean energy goals, Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday.
The New Jersey Wind Port will be the first "purpose-built marshalling and manufacturing port dedicated to the offshore wind industry" in the U.S., Murphy said during his daily briefing.
The port will be "the biggest turbine port in the country," the Washington Post reported.
"We have set one of the nation's most ambitious goals for generating offshore wind energy — 7,500 megawatts by the year 2035," Murphy said, noting that the state is "on (its) way to a 100 percent clean energy economy by the year 2050."
"To meet this goal, we must be as ambitious in building out our energy infrastructure as we have been in creating this vision, and the New Jersey Wind Port is critical to this effort," he said.
The wind port's creation will be "one way that will position our economy for growth as we emerge together from this pandemic," he added. The project is expected to generate $500 million in annual economic activity.
Construction will begin in 2021, starting with a 25-acre manufacturing site and a 30-acre marshalling and staging site to be built in Lower Alloways Creek in Salem County, Murphy said.
The port will house "multiple factories where the parts for offshore wind turbines will be built, as well as the staging areas to move them directly from the port to the offshore wind farms that will rise off our coastline, and up and down the Atlantic seaboard," he said.
The project is expected to create up to 1,500 permanent manufacturing, assembly and operation jobs, as well as hundreds of construction jobs.
It will also help reduce air pollution in the state, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said during Murphy's briefing.
Murphy on Tuesday reported 470 new COVID-19 cases and 51 new deaths, bringing the state's case total to 167,426 and the state's death toll to 12,727.
Nearly 17 percent of the New Jerseyans who have died of complications related to COVID-19 had underlying chronic lung conditions like asthma and emphysema, Persichilli said. More than 760,000 New Jersey adults and children, she noted, have asthma.
"These conditions, which are exacerbated by air pollution, put residents at risk for premature death," she said. "We know that clearer air means better health."
