National Offshore Wind Strategy sets out how government can support hoped-for boom in offshore wind energy
The Obama administration has released a new offshore wind strategy setting out how 86GW of offshore wind could be deployed in the country by 2050.
The document, released on Friday by the Department of Energy (DoE) and Department of the Interior (DoI), elaborates on how the government could deliver the massive 86GW in offshore wind capacity set out in the DoE's major Wind Vision roadmap last year.
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It identifies several areas where the two departments can take action over the next five years to address the challenges facing the industry, which is still in the early stages of development in the US.
These include reducing the costs and technical risks facing industry via supportive measures such as boosting understanding of offshore wind power resource in the country and optimising wind plants for unique US conditions.
Meanwhile, more certainty could be provided for investors in offshore wind power by ensuring more consistency and clarity in the regulatory process. The collection of data to verify and validate the impacts of offshore wind development on sensitive biological resources and existing human uses of ocean space would also reduce the environmental risk of investment, the report said.
The strategy also sets out how market conditions for investment in the sector could be improved by increasing understanding of its unique costs and benefits, such as how significant offshore wind deployment could impact the electricity grid.
Industry groups welcomed the strategy. "The National Offshore Wind Strategy, five years in the making, builds on tremendous momentum created by the first American offshore wind farm, which completed construction this summer," said Nancy Sopko, manager of advocacy and federal legislative affairs at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), in a statement.
"The US is on the path to a brighter energy future - to the benefit of communities who will see cleaner air and American manufacturing that will help build, operate and maintain these wind farms," she added. "We look forward to continued engagement with these agencies to further reduce the cost of offshore wind and streamline permitting so that we can get these projects in the water as soon as possible."
The report comes as commercial interest in the US offshore wind industry gathers pace. By the end of 2015, the DOI had awarded 11 commercial leases for offshore wind development which could support a total of 14.6 GW, the report said. Meanwhile, construction has now been completed on the first commercial offshore wind energy facility in the US - the Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island - with commercial operation set to begin before the end of 2016.
According to last year's Wind Vision roadmap, more than 400GW of onshore and offshore wind could be deployed in the US by 2050, employing more than 600,000 people and reaping massive savings through reduced economic damages from greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution while also cutting the cost of electricity in the long term.
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