Previously, his draft energy master plan called for 1,000 megawatts of wind power by 2020. Yesterday, he called for that goal to be met by 2012, and set a new one of 3,000 megawatts for eight years after that.

Corzine also opened the door a little wider for the two companies that lost their bid on Friday to get a $19 million grant from the state Board of Public Utilities to build an offshore wind farm.

On Friday, the BPU voted to give $4 million - all that was requested - to the $1 billion project proposed by Garden State Offshore Wind, a venture between PSEG Renewable Generation and Hoboken-based Deepwater Wind.

Company spokesman Paul Rosengren said then that the value of the grant wasn't so much the money as it was the cachet of the state endorsement, which he expected to smooth a complex permitting process.

Yesterday, Corzine invited the other companies - Bluewater Wind and Fishermen's Energy of New Jersey L.L.C., a corsortium of commercial fishermen - to work with his office, the BPU and the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop their projects.

He encouraged them and others "to bring all ideas to the table."

PSEG's chief executive Ralph Izzo praised the governor's goal, saying it "makes us all realize we're participating not in the initiation of a project, but in the creation of an industry. Namely, the offshore wind industry."

He said it would "create a critical mass of talent and capital."

Representatives of both Bluewater and Fishermen's Energy said they were eager to move forward.

"We welcome the oppportunity to be a partner with the state," said Jim Lanard, Bluewater's head of strategic planning.

Many environmental groups have supported New Jersey's expansion in solar power. The Garden State ranks second in the United States in the amount installed.

Yesterday, Dena Mottola Jaborska, executive director of Environment New Jersey, called the governor's offshore wind plan "the most aggressive . . . in the nation."

Two other states - Rhode Island and Delaware - have announced offshore wind projects, but none has goals matching New Jersey's, according to state officials and environmental groups.

However, Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society in Sandy Hook and a critic of offshore wind, said he was worried the fervor would overwhelm environmental considerations associated with "putting industrial structures in the ocean."

Although the technology is advancing, the scale of the wind farm approved Friday - 96 turbines with 350 megawatts of capacity - suggests that about 800 wind turbines could be erected offshore.

The DEP is in the midst of an environmental impact study, not expected to be completed until next year.

"The governor is setting a very aggressive goal that people are going to hold him to, and that the BPU is going to direct money toward," Dillingham said. "So once they start down this path, the environmental impact studies will play less of a role than they should."