Offshore wind appears poised for growth in the US. As of August 2021, there is only a single operational offshore wind project — the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island developed by Deepwater Wind. This represents 30MW of capacity out of a total pipeline of ~5GW offshore wind projects operating, under construction, or in permitting. The Northeastern states have been the most active in driving demand for offshore wind, with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts establishing targets to procure a total of 25,400MW of offshore wind by 2035.
The Biden Administration has been vocal in supporting offshore wind projects, as part of Biden’s overall push to build clean energy infrastructure and create green jobs. In March 2021, Biden established a target to deploy 30GW of offshore wind power in the US by 2030. According to the administration:
“Meeting this target will trigger more than $12 billion per year in capital investment in projects on both U.S. coasts, create tens of thousands of good-paying, union jobs, with more than 44,000 workers employed in offshore wind by 2030 and nearly 33,000 additional jobs in communities supported by offshore wind activity. It will also generate enough power to meet the demand of more than 10 million American homes for a year, and avoid 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.”
Offshore wind development in the US faces a few major hurdles, the first of which is permitting. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management faces a growing backlog of permitting proposals, with approval processes for the first few projects taking longer than expected. Permitting reviews need to account for the concerns of the commercial fishing industry and coastal communities, and lack of clarity on the environmental impact of offshore developments further complicates review processes.
The US also needs further investment in offshore wind project infrastructure to support deployment. This includes readying ports to handle the manufacturing, installation, and operation of offshore wind farms. This also will likely include building wind turbine installation vessels that are compliant with the Jones Act, which requires goods shipped between US ports to be transported on US built, owned and operated ships.
The next few years will be an interesting chapter in the development of the US offshore wind industry. With the momentum generated by the Biden Administration’s support, offshore wind developers can surely expect to be busy building out a new segment of the US energy market.
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