Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Tuesday plans to construct a giant $250 million manufacturing plant that will build wind turbine components along a South Jersey riverfront site.

During a news conference at the Paulsboro Marine Terminal in Gloucester County, Murphy said the state-of-the-art factory will produce steel components known as monopoles for eventual windfarms off the Jersey coast as well as across the nation.

“What we are inaugurating here is an investment in offshore industry manufacturing that will benefit the entire nation, while ultimately creating more than 500 good paying overwhelmingly union jobs right here in Paulsboro," he said. "Simply put, this is the largest investment in offshore wind manufacturing in the United States to date.”

He said the public-private partnership, in collaboration with EEW, a German company that builds turbine components, and Orsted, a Danish company that develops and builds offshore wind farms, is a major step for clean energy and economic revitalization.

“We know that rebuilding our economy for the post-COVID world means building back smarter and more resilient than ever before,” said the governor. “With the jobs to match, this facility will help us get there, the impact of the offshore industry on our state will be huge.”

State Senate President Steve Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said having this kind of facility in South Jersey makes sense.

“It’s an emerging industry and we want to be the hub,” he said. “Every state on the East Coast has been chasing it and guess what, we’re getting it.”

The governor said the manufacturing plant will be built where a BP oil refinery and storage facility once stood.

“It is now from this point where New Jersey and the nation’s transformation from an economy reliant only on fossil fuels to one that runs on clean renewable energy begins,” he said.

In June, the governor announced plans to develop the New Jersey Wind Port in Lower Alloways Creek, a first-in-the-nation infrastructure investment that will provide a location for essential staging, assembly and manufacturing activities related to offshore wind projects up and down the East Coast

You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com

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