2 Firms Win bids To Develop Windmills Off New Jersey Coast

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Two companies have won the right to build windmills off the New Jersey coast to generate enough power for up to 1.2 million homes.

The U.S. Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says the lease sales announced Monday will bring in nearly $2 million.

The companies are RES America Developments Inc. of Broomfield, Colorado, and US Wind Inc. of Baltimore.

The lease sales cover nearly 344,000 acres of ocean floor.

Previously, the agency awarded nine commercial offshore wind leases, including projects off Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maryland and Virginia.

The New Jersey lease area would run roughly from Long Beach Island to the southern tip of the state near Cape May.

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