The largest of New Jersey’s remaining coal-fired power plants is going offline for good this week.

On Wednesday, the B.L. England plant in Upper Township will be permanently shutdown, according to Mayor Rich Palombo.

RC Cape May Holdings, the plant’s owner, did not offer any comment on the closure.

News of the official closure date was first reported by the Press of Atlantic City.

B.L. England’s coal-fired unit has remained online, but only in standby, in recent years. The facility was one of several aging coal plants to be shut down in recent years amid a shift toward natural gas and greener energy sources.

With the closure of B.L. England, two coal-fired power plants remain operating in the Garden State: Logan Generating Plant in Gloucester County and Carney’s Point Cogen in Salem County.

In January, PSE&G announced that it had sold retired coal plants in Mercer and Hudson Counties to a redeveloper, which plans to turn the plants into warehouse complexes.

RC Cape May Holdings had previously planned to convert B.L. England from coal to natural gas -- a proposal that formed the foundation of the Cape Atlantic Reliability Project, a proposed 22-mile pipeline would have carried natural gas across Cumberland and Cape May counties to B.L. England.

But in February, the power plant owner changed course and abandoned the natural gas plan. That decision has undercut the pipeline proposal, and has raised new questions about the future of the BL England site.

NJ Advance Media has previously reported that officials in Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration would like to see the site used support solar or wind power. Palombo said that Orsted, an offshore wind developer, is considering using the site as a point to connect future offshore wind farms to the power grid.

Orsted confirmed that it is considering the B.L. England site as a possible interconnection point. The company is waiting for the state Board of Public Utilities to approve its Ocean Wind project, which is proposed to be 15 miles off the Shore from Atlantic City. Ocean Wind would be New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm.

The mayor said Upper Township would welcome any future energy development at the B.L. England site.

“When you have an existing plant thats in your jurisdiction, to me it makes sense to utilize the facility that’s already in place,” Palombo said. “It’s already there. It’s been there for a long time.”

Any new development at the B.L. England site will be accompanied by environmental cleanup. It is unclear who will be responsible for that remediation — Palombo points out that much of the contamination occurred before RC Cape May Holdings took over the plant. The mayor added that Upper Township is currently seeking outside counsel to help navigate legal developments in B.L. England’s future.

This story was updated at 1:45 p.m. with more information from Orsted.

Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MSolDub. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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