A consortium of technology and investment companies including Google has devoted $1.8 billion to building a network of transmission lines to connect future offshore wind farms along the Atlantic from New Jersey to Virginia.

Google Inc. has teamed up with investment firm Good Energies, Japanese industrial conglomerate Marubeni and Maryland transmission company Trans-Elect to develop transmission lines that could deliver 2,000 megawatts of wind energy along the East Coast.

Trans-Elect CEO Robert L. Mitchell says the first phase will run 150 miles in federal waters from New Jersey to Delaware and be complete by early 2016. The entire project could cost up to $5 billion over the next ten years, Mitchell said.

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