Full Title: Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Offshore Wind
Author(s): Jonah Ury, Brett Anders, Philipp Beiter, Jocelyn Brown-Saracino, and Patrick Gilman
Publisher(s): U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date: May 2, 2024
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The U.S. offshore wind (OSW) market is at an inflection point. Offshore wind can deliver tens of gigawatts (GWs) of clean power to East Coast load within this decade, with approximately 250 MW operational, 5 GW under construction, and over 10 GW total approved for construction as of April 2024. In the next few years, an additional 5-10 GW of projects have a path to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) and begin construction. These early mover investments in enabling infrastructure, continued procurement commitments, and experience deploying projects over the next few years will demonstrate and foster the long-term deployment of offshore wind across the U.S.
Despite facing macroeconomic challenges, the sector is adapting, and improved risk mitigation is being built into industry planning. The primary driver of recent offtake cancellations—macroeconomic headwinds—will be de-risked going forward through new offtake solicitations, and global increases in offshore wind cost inputs and interest rates have begun to stabilize. Moreover, states and developers are making significant progress to refine best practices for project procurement, coordinated transmission upgrades, and early supply chain development investments. State leadership has been and will remain fundamental to advancing offshore wind development, planning, and supply chain investments.
Offshore wind power can play a critical role in both near-term and long-term decarbonization of the U.S. energy system. Decarbonizing to tackle the climate crisis while meeting electricity load growth will require fast deployment of clean sources. Offshore wind promises to help meet demand growth by providing near-term deployment at scale, particularly for land-constrained coastal demand centers that have limited clean electricity alternatives and might otherwise need to add new natural gas or delay fossil fuel retirement.