By Pat Johnson | on April 30, 2020

SPINNING WHEELS: Atlantic Shores Offshore wind farm lease area plus potential energy export cable routes to Mansquan and Atlantic City. (Supplied Image)

A second offshore windfarm, Atlantic Shores, is starting to conduct marine surveys of its Outer Continental Shelf lease, 180,000 acres that stretches 9 to 20 miles off Atlantic City and Barnegat Light, Long Beach Island.

The Atlantic Shores lease is owned by Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables North America. The surveys will begin in May and continue through August in waters from 60 feet to 100 feet deep.

Maneuverability of all survey vessels will be restricted, and mariners should retain a nautical mile distance from each vessel. Mariners can listen to VHF channel 16 for locations.

The first vessel to do surveys starting May 1 is FugroBrasillis, 67 meters long, which will be looking for possible export cable routes between Atlantic City and Manasquan. On or about June 24, the Zephyr Westerly, 50 meters long, which will be doing nearshore surveys in the same area as above in depths of 12 meters or less. Starting on July 1, the Tidewater Royal, 71 meters, will conduct vibracore (low impact sonar) activities every kilometer along proposed cable routes. On July 10, the Geoquip Saentis 80 meters, will mobilize to drill 15 boreholes within the lease area.

The surveys are to support Atlantic Shores site application plan to the Interior Departments Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Atlantic Shores is the second offshore wind farm to attempt wind turbines off the New Jersey coast. Orsted, a Danish energy company with intentions to erect 92 to 99 wind turbines 15 miles off the Atlantic Coast. rsted has completed its SAP and is working on getting approval for its construction and operations plan. rsteds plan is to power half a million homes from renewable wind power. Atlantic Shores says it has the potential to power a million homes but has not yet released how many turbines it is expected to erect. P.J.

Read more:

Second Offshore Wind Farm Starts Surveys - The SandPaper