Rutgers scientists are leading a study to better understand the nature of sea breezes along New Jersey's shore, to make the proposed offshore wind farms a more predictable energy source.

Rutgers graduate Greg Seroka works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and consulted on this study.

"What we found was that sea breezes often occur on hot afternoons in New Jersey," Seroka said. "But those conditions change, when winds from the southwest push the warm surface ocean water away from the shore. This causes a volume of much colder bottom water, from the bottom, to hit the beaches and chill the swimmers."

He said the scientists also found that this can cause the sea breezes to occur about five hours earlier than normal, and also to become much stronger."

Seroka said he's working in collaboration with other Rutgers researchers on this wind energy project to help developers determine two things:

"One, where to put the actual turbines, and how to formulate the wind farm offshore. And two, they need to understand, for the next day and the day at the market, how much energy are they going to be providing."

Gov. Phil Murphy wants New Jersey to meet a goal of 3500 megawatts of offshore wind-generated power by the year 2030.

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