Group launches buoy for wind energy project

New Jersey stepped up the race to become a national leader in wind-generated power as a group planning a wind project took the first step in making it a reality, one day after a Massachusetts wind farm proposal was the first to get the federal government's approval.

Fishermen's Energy launched an environmental monitoring buoy from a dock in Atlantic City. It will sit nearly three miles offshore to gather data on wind conditions and environmental resources in the area.

The group eventually hopes to place 66 turbines offshore, capable of powering 50,000 homes.

The launch came a day after the Obama administration cleared the way for America's first offshore wind farm off Cape Cod.

"This is an important step forward for the development of wind power off New Jersey and for clean energy," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "We have a choice between windmills or oil wells off our coast. We choose wind. Given the oil spill disaster that struck the Gulf of Mexico, we say 'Wind, Baby, Wind.'"

Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey, also cited the Gulf accident, in which 11 workers are missing and presumed dead and unleashed a spill that has yet to be controlled and threatens fragile wetlands in Louisiana.

"The oil spill threatening the Gulf Coast is a sad reminder that wind energy — not more oil drilling — is the way to use our coasts to power our future," she said.

The first phase of Fishermen's Energy would place eight turbines about 2.8 miles off Atlantic City, capable of generating enough power for 6,000 homes in southern New Jersey.

In October 2008, New Jersey announced plans to become a world leader in wind-generated electricity. Under the timetable, the state would generate 3,000 megawatts of wind energy by 2020. That would be 13 percent of New Jersey's total energy, enough to power between 800,000 to just under 1 million homes.