TRENTON, N.J. – Deepwater Wind, the company named last week to build the first offshore wind farm in Rhode Island, today was awarded a $19 million grant for a similar project in New Jersey.

“This is as much a win for Rhode Island as it is for Deepwater Wind,” R.I. Gov. Donald L. Carcieri said in a statement shortly after the grant was announced.

The company – a five-month-old firm backed by First Wind, a Mass.-based wind-energy developer; investment firm D.E. Shaw & Co.; and hedge fund Ospraie Management LLC – holds an exclusive license for the Northeast to Norway-based OWEC’s patented tower technology. “European countries have used deepwater technology noted today.

The base support structures, or “jackets,” for Deepwater projects across the Northeast – including the Rhode Island project announced last week (READ MORE) – are to be manufactured at the Quonset Business Park in North Kingstown, state and company officials said last week.

“By establishing ourselves as an early leader in offshore wind energy production and the center for jacket manufacturing, we gain an important competitive advantage in attracting alternative-energy companies – including turbine manufacturers – to the state and in creating new high-wage, green-energy jobs across Rhode Island,” Carcieri added.

Under the proposal selected today by the N.J. Board of Public Utilities, Deepwater will develop that state’s first offshore wind farm.

The project – a joint venture of Deepwater and the New Jersey’s largest electric utility, the Public Service Enterprise Group – will feature 96 turbines that altogether will be capable of generating up to 350 megawatts of electricity, the company said in a statement today. They will be sited on towers 16 to 20 miles off the Jersey shore.

“This exciting opportunity to develop offshore wind projects in Rhode Island and now New Jersey underscores how Deepwater Wind’s proven, ocean-based wind technology is the solution to the pressing challenges of climate change and energy independence that we all face,” added Deepwater Wind CEO Chris Brown.

Also vying for the New Jersey grant, according to the New Jersey Herald, were Fishermen’s Energy LLC, Bluewater Wind, Garden State Offshore Energy, Occidental Development & Equities LLC and Environmental Technologies LLC.

“The exclusive partnership between OWEC – the proven leader in jacket technology – and Deepwater Wind is a perfect solution to harness wind power off our shores,” Carcieri said. “The announcement today by New Jersey proves that states are getting serious about renewable energy and energy independence, and positions Rhode Island squarely at the center of this emerging and important industry.”

Deepwater’s Ocean State offshore project will feature $1.5 billion in private investment and the creation of as many as 800 construction jobs at Quonset Point, during the building of the company’s jacket-manufacturing facility, company officials noted.

Deepwater Wind is a wind-energy firm – backed by energy developer First Wind (formerly UPC Wind) of Newton, Mass., and New York investors D.E. Shaw & Co. LP and Ospraie Management LLC – that has acquired the offshore wind projects of Long Island-based Winergy Power LLC. Founded in the spring of 2008, Deepwater has its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Mich., and offices in Houston, New Jersey and New York. For more information, visit www.dwwind.com.