water’s surface, which he called “a great advantage
where offshore wind offers a challenge with the
visual impact, especially with coastal communities
and tourism and other concerns.”
Muhammed Hajj, director of the Davidson
Laboratory at New Jersey’s Stevens Institute of
Technology, said a handful of demonstration
projects are already in the water off New Jersey,
but none approached commercial scale.
Philipp Stratmann, CEO of Monroe, New Jersey-
based Ocean Power Technologies, said his
company has four offshore sites in New Jersey
approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
He said he hopes the state will “invest in an
ecosystem that can allow ocean technology to
grow and thrive.”
Patty Cronheim, campaigns director for the New
Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said wave
energy is a reliable source of clean power.
“As a surfer, I can tell you the ocean is always
moving, even on the flattest days,” she said. “It is a
perpetual motion machine. The potential for wave
energy is promising.”