Google Inc., Marubeni Corp. of Japan and an investment company plan to lay power cables off the coast of the U.S. to supply electricity from wind farms to New Jersey and three other eastern states.
The group plans to build power grids with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts to connect future offshore wind farms and New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, according to a statement released on Marubeni’s website.
The group will set up a company to conduct a feasibility study by 2013 and plan to start operations of the 1,500-megawatt first phase in 2016, Marubeni spokesman Yo Nomura said. The project may cost as much as $6 billion, the Nikkei English News reported before the announcement. Nomura declined to comment on the costs of the project.
Google and Good Energies Investment Corp., an investor in green energy projects, will hold 85 percent of the company while Marubeni will take 15 percent, Nomura said. He declined to comment on the size of main investors’ stakes.
Google and Good Energies will each take a 37.5 percent stake in the project, the New York Times reported.
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