Bluewater Wind Founder and President Peter D. Mandelstam joined U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine Tuesday on the Atlantic City boardwalk to announce that Bluewater Wind and two other off-shore wind developers will be granted leases by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to construct meteorological towers in the Atlantic Ocean. The meteorological towers are a critical first step in determining the feasibility of off-shore wind projects.
Bluewater Wind has received the lease approval in both New Jersey and Delaware.
“I am honored to join Governor Corzine and Secretary Salazar today as we move one significant step closer to a cleaner and more stable-priced energy future in New Jersey,” said Mandelstam. “Politicians are often criticized for measuring which way the wind blows, but today these two innovative leaders deserve praise for their outstanding leadership on energy issues.”
Bluewater Wind will construct two meteorological towers, one each off the coasts of New Jersey and Delaware. The firm intends to begin survey work more than 15 miles off the coast this summer; land-based construction of the towers this winter; and erection and operation of the towers in the spring of 2010. Bluewater Wind was selected by the State of Delaware as its sole off-shore wind developer and by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities as one of three developers.
