Offshore Wind Energy

Scaling Up Innovation to Drive Down Emissions

Find out more about the briefings in this series below:

Green Hydrogen

Direct Air Capture

Building Out Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure

Offshore Wind Energy

How Start-Up Accelerators Can Drive Climate Action

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) invites you to watch a briefing on offshore wind energy. In March 2021, the Biden-Harris Administration announced an interagency goal of deploying 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030—an extraordinary increase from the 42 megawatts of offshore wind currently operating in the United States. Meeting this goal will require a rapid and historical deployment of offshore wind energy that has the potential to create tens of thousands of jobs, spur the economy, and provide renewable energy to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

During this briefing, panelists discussed opportunities, challenges, and considerations for scaling up offshore wind energy in the United States, as well as the policies that could support such a ramp-up.

This briefing is part of a series called Scaling Up Innovation to Drive Down Emissions, covering hydrogen, direct air capture, and electric vehicle infrastructure build-out. 

The series ran in parallel with another briefing series, Living with Climate Change that focused on strategies, policies, and programs preparing communities around the country for four major climate threats: polar vortices, sea level rise, wildfires, and extreme heat. 

Highlights

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has held 10 lease sales to date with 27 issued leases for offshore wind projects. Two construction operations plans were approved, and 10 others are under review. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project was the first offshore wind project in federal waters and has been operating since 2020. The entire leasing process for an offshore wind project, from early identification to installation, takes about a decade. The Biden-Harris Administration's “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” (Executive Order 14008) initiated a goal of doubling offshore wind deployment by 2030. This was followed by a specific commitment to reach 30 gigawatts of offshore wind deployed by 2030. Assuming offshore wind turbines produce four gigawatts per acre, a goal of 30 gigawatts would require most, if not all, the leasing BOEM has initiated to be installed. Supporting offshore wind projects involves supporting the projects themselves, along with electricity transmission from the projects to residents on the mainland. As the offshore wind industry continues to expand, U.S. projects must be able to rely on domestic supply chains to support the industry. The supply chain for offshore wind includes industries, companies, and workers in 46 out of 50 states and represents both coasts. Addressing port issues is key to the industry’s success. Offshore wind suppliers require ports with high load bearing capacity, as a single piece of a typical turbine off the East Coast can weigh almost 2,500 metric tons. Ports also need ample dockside space for boats to pull up next to manufacturing locations. Floating offshore wind energy technology will be important for the United States. Because of the geography of the sea floor, 60 percent of potential wind resources within 50 miles of U.S. coasts will require floating wind turbines. In the Northeast, there are 156 potential gigawatts of floating wind energy to harness. Along the West Coast, the only real offshore wind potential is in floating wind technology. There is a global investment pipeline for about 121 gigawatts of floating wind energy, or about half a trillion dollars’ worth of investment.

 

Wright Frank, Chief of Renewable Energy Policy, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)

• Offshore renewable energy deployment in the United States involves both federal and state processes. States provide economic incentives for utilities to invest in offshore wind, while the federal government provides rights to construct turbines. Most offshore wind leasing currently takes place off the Atlantic Coast; projects along the Pacific Coast and Gulf of Mexico are beginning to move through the leasing process.
• The size and scope of wind turbines continue to grow. For example, the existing Cape Wind Project turbines each generate 3.6 megawatts of power while current project proposals describe 14 or 15 megawatts of power.
• The entire leasing process, from early identification to installation, takes about a decade. BOEM begins with a request for interest in leasing certain areas or a call for information and nominations to examine if development is appropriate in the future. If BOEM finds appropriate areas for leasing, leasing notices, proposed sell notices, and final sale notices are published. New lessees have several years to conduct surveys and submit a construction operations plan (a detailed description of the project) and an environmental impact statement. Once BOEM approves the construction operations plan and the environmental review, installation can begin.
• The energy industry has displayed increasing interest in offshore wind. The high watermark for a large lease in 2018 was $42 million; momentum has grown so that leases sold today are routinely over one billion dollars. New Jersey, New York, and New England are areas of particular interest.
• The supply chain in the United States must rise to meet demand for a substantial offshore wind industry to thrive. Specifically, there must be a significant increase in the quantity of construction vessels available. Turbine construction requires purpose-built vessels, and it is difficult to modify existing vessels to install turbines in shifting air and ocean conditions. Important vessel types also include service vessels and cable-laying vessels. Since vessels are in demand globally, it can be difficult to recruit international vessels to construct and service U.S. offshore wind turbines.
• Other areas of the supply chain must change in order for offshore wind to be a successful industry. Ports need to be upgraded to hold the weight of disassembled wind turbines, and academia is stepping in to meet the need for trained individuals and new technologies.
• BOEM has held 10 lease sales to date with 27 issued leases. Two construction operations plans were approved, and 10 other applications are underway. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Project was the first offshore wind project in federal waters and has been operating since 2020.
• The Biden-Harris Administration's “Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” (Executive Order 14008) initiated a goal of doubling offshore wind deployment by 2030. This was followed by a specific commitment to reach 30 gigawatts of offshore wind deployed by 2030. Assuming offshore wind turbines produce four gigawatts per acre, a goal of 30 gigawatts would require most, if not all, the leasing BOEM has initiated to be installed.

 

Andrea Hart, Senior Program Manager, Offshore Wind, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities

• New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy set a goal for 7,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2035. Subsequently, the state established offshore wind renewable energy credits to support projects.
• The Board of Public Utilities issued its first solicitation in 2018 for 1,100 megawatts. At the time, it was the largest in the country. In 2020, two more projects were issued, totaling over 2,600 megawatts. More solicitations are expected to occur to meet Governor Murphy’s 7,500-megawatt goal.
• Supporting offshore wind projects involves supporting the projects themselves, along with electricity transmission from the projects to residents on the mainland.
• New Jersey’s first few offshore wind projects bundled generation and transmission together, where each wind farm connected their generated power to the mainland. This is known as the ‘spaghetti approach’ and causes some inefficiencies as new wind farms are added.
• The Board is investigating a more coordinated transmission solution in the mid-Atlantic area based on rules approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Offshore wind projects have now been incorporated into transmission projects through a competitive solicitation process known as the State Agreement Approach. This approach allows for lower costs, greater efficiency, innovative proposals, decreased environmental impacts, and increased ratepayer savings.
• Although the competitive solicitation process is a novel approach, the Board of Public Utilities ended up receiving 80 projects from 13 unique entities, indicating a demand for offshore wind energy.
• There are three different options for solicitation under the State Agreement Approach. The first option upgrades the existing grid, while the second option moves onshore upgrades closer to the shoreline to connect with offshore wind projects. The third option, or the ‘backbone approach,’ connects all the offshore wind farms together to create a backbone of projects down the coast.
• The State Agreement Approach fits into larger federal goals of offshore wind development by providing long-term infrastructure projects in the mid-Atlantic area that connect offshore wind to onshore transmission. Potential areas to increase federal support for offshore wind projects include increasing the availability of federal funding, applying the Investment Tax Credit to clean energy transmission facilities, and enabling regional coordination to encourage states to invest in each other.

 

John Begala, Vice President of Federal & State Policy, Business Network for Offshore Wind

• The offshore wind industry is a three-way partnership between the states, the federal government, and businesses. Developing the supply chain for offshore wind involves engaging original equipment manufacturers, companies that supply materials to those manufacturers, and labor organizations and other supporting institutions.
• States’ and BOEM’s combined support for offshore wind projects provide certainty for manufacturers, who know that investing in projects will yield a functioning product.
• Offshore wind will have to play a key role in states’ renewable portfolios, as turbines can be located near major metropolitan centers along the East Coast and do not have the same land use issues as onshore renewable energy projects.
• There are currently 17.5 gigawatts of offshore wind energy procured by states. Procurements are primarily coming from New York and New Jersey, with Massachusetts and Maryland also playing a role in projects. Active projects on the East Coast stretch from the Massachusetts coast down to the Carolina Long Bay; more projects are planned off the California coast and in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Offshore wind energy will benefit local communities, support jobs, and provide businesses with certainty and durability even when presidential administrations change.
• The Biden-Harris Administration’s 2025 energy goals for offshore wind projects are ambitious. Their goal of approving 16 construction operation plans represents 19 gigawatts of offshore wind power. For perspective, there are 50 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity deployed globally, with the two biggest markets, the United Kingdom and Germany, generating a combined 20 gigawatts.
• As the offshore wind industry continues to expand and European countries continue to increase their energy targets, domestic projects must be able to rely on domestic supply chains to support the industry. The supply chain for offshore wind includes industries, companies, and workers in 46 out of 50 states and represents both coasts.
• The Business Network for Offshore Wind’s Supply Chain Connect database allows companies to self-identify as being capable of providing needed services or materials; developers and tier one manufacturers can use the database to source their supply chain domestically or even locally.
• Addressing port issues is key to the industry’s success. Offshore wind suppliers require ports with high load bearing capacity, as a single piece of a typical turbine off the East Coast can weigh almost 2,500 metric tons. Ports also need ample dockside space for boats to pull up next to manufacturing locations. While figuring out the logistics of staging materials can be a challenge, it is also an opportunity to invest in ports and create local jobs. Funding for port infrastructure development plans has also helped facilitate port modernization.
• A reasonable number of ports can currently participate in a barge and filtering system, where a barge arrives at a dock, picks up goods, and transfers those goods to the turbine installation vessel. However, in the future, port infrastructure needs to be able to accommodate extremely large vessels.
• Port infrastructure on the West Coast will also be a challenge, as the high activity of shipping and commercial cargo containers reduces access for turbine installation vessels. Offshore wind on the West Coast will rely more on floating offshore wind installations, and more area is required to build a floating offshore wind turbine and stage the necessary materials at the port.

 

Lauren Farnsworth, Offshore Wind Program Manager, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC)

• Workforce opportunities in the offshore wind industry include jobs in planning and development, construction and installation, and operations and maintenance.
• MassCEC focuses on developing a well-trained and highly skilled workforce with an emphasis on diversity and safety. The organization commissioned workforce assessments to examine the gaps and demands of the labor supply. It aims to engage directly with the offshore wind industry by investing in high-need programs; supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and facilitating meetings between practitioners and stakeholders to share information and best practices.
• MassCEC also hosts rounds of competitive grant solicitations to support workforce development programs and initiatives. MassCEC has invested almost eight million dollars in grants to support over 20 different organizations.
• One grantee is Browning the Green Space, a nonprofit in the Boston area that helps people of color gain access to the clean energy industry by providing professional support and outreach. This group partnered with Xodus Group, an energy and consulting firm, which provided a technical background and industry knowledge.
• Another grantee is the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, the first facility in the United States to offer all five modules of basic safety training for offshore wind projects. The Academy also plans to develop and offer a basic seamanship course for pile drivers and the divers’ local union.

 

Dr. Habib Dagher, Executive Director of the Advanced Structures & Composites Center, University of Maine

• Floating wind turbines are turbines that are not anchored in the seabed, and instead float over the water while using mooring lines that connect to anchors on the seabed and keep the turbine within a constricted area. The turbines have power cables that descend from the center of the hub down the water column, where the cables then follow the seabed.
• The United States has a significant opportunity to advance its technological leadership with floating wind turbines. Currently, there is an international race to design and build floating turbine technologies. Laboratory spaces, like those at the University of Maine, can simulate real-world conditions at scale to test the durability and efficiency of different designs, which will be essential to creating successful turbines.
• There are four categories of floating wind turbine designs: tension leg, barge, spar, and semi-submersible. All the designs allow turbines to withstand intense sea storms and other dangerous conditions. The spar design is a large floating tube with a diameter of 30 to 40 feet. It sinks 250 feet below the surface of the water, with a weight at the bottom of the otherwise-hollow hub. The semi-submersible design is the one most commonly used, with a number of air-filled flotation hubs attached to the central hub that prevent the turbine from tipping over in the water, much like the parallel hulls of a catamaran. The larger and farther apart each flotation hub is placed, the more stable the turbine.
• Floating offshore wind technology will be important for the United States. Because of the geography of the sea floor, 60 percent of potential wind resources within 50 miles of U.S. coasts will require floating wind turbines. In the Gulf of Maine and other parts of the Northeast, there are 156 potential gigawatts of floating wind energy to harness. Along the West Coast, the only real offshore wind potential is in floating wind technology. There is a global investment pipeline for about 121 gigawatts of floating wind energy, or about half a trillion dollars’ worth of investment.
• The University of Maine deployed a pilot floating turbine in 2013. Next year, they will begin construction of an 11-megawatt demonstration project, and they plan to deploy a research array of about 12 turbines in 2027. Commercial farm development is estimated to begin in 2030.
• Unlike current commercial offshore wind technology, floating wind turbines can be constructed in-port and towed out to sea without using large construction vessels. Once the turbine is towed to its final location, steel mooring chains and undersea cables are attached to anchor the turbine and connect generated electricity to the mainland.
• Electrical cables from a floating turbine must be supported in the water column with buoyancy modules, unlike the taut cables of a fixed-bottom turbine. This creates interesting research problems, particularly in California, where cables need to run through 2,400 feet of water before reaching the seabed. Drag anchors are used to attach the mooring lines to the seabed.
• One advantage of floating wind technology is that turbines can be installed beyond the horizon, out of sight of people on the coast. This reduces fishing impacts, visual impacts, and other impacts on recreational uses of the ocean.
• Floating wind ports differ from fixed-bottom ports, because they require deeper water and more space to install a full turbine without obstructions. Investments in such facilities might exceed $250 million, but it is necessary for a successful floating wind industry in the United States. Another necessary investment is in research and development, so the United States can emerge as a leader in the floating wind technology industry.

 

Q&A

 

Q: Outside of the efforts by the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to develop the State Agreement Approach, how has the current interconnection queue affected the timeline for offshore wind projects?

Hart

• When a company wants to interconnect to a regional transmission grid, they must first get permission to do so. They are put in the queue, and when it is their turn, a regional transmission planning organization examines the network to ensure there will be no reliability or overload issues. Once that analysis is performed, companies are permitted to connect to the grid.
• The PJM process is undergoing reform because of a score of past problems, including long delays and costly obstacles to long-term planning. The State Agreement Approach is helpful because it gets the transmission solutions in place well before generation solutions come online and allows generation projects to immediately connect to transmission.

Dagher

• Decoupling the risks of transmission and distribution from other portions of the development project can significantly reduce costs. Offshore wind transmission through an interstate system sponsored by the federal government would transform the electricity grid much like the interstate freeway system transformed transportation infrastructure.

Frank

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has published some rulemaking proposals to address cost allocation and in-queue issues.

 

Q: The Biden-Harris Administration aims to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. What are one or two key actions or barriers that might prevent the United States from meeting this aggressive goal?

Frank

• When a new technology or policy is proposed, a cautious first reaction is expected. Once projects are up and running, people can get direct experience with offshore wind and the public will have the chance to re-evaluate their initial impressions and hopefully become more comfortable with the industry.

Hart

• The country will have a difficult time reaching decarbonization goals without incorporating offshore wind energy.
• While the technology is relatively new in the United States, offshore wind has been heavily developed in the North Sea in Europe, which has similar conditions to the Outer Continental Shelf [the seafloor within 200 nautical miles of U.S. coastlines].
• Former offshore oil and gas industry companies and workers are joining the offshore wind industry and have many transferable skills and some translatable supply chain. Previous existing infrastructure and industries can translate to make establishing the offshore wind industry more approachable and digestible in the near-term.

Begala

• It will be important to channel capital and certification programs to tier-two and -three manufacturers to allow for businesses to be certified to supply larger tier-one manufacturers. There is also potential for more domestic steel sourcing projects that require thick, heavy plate steel. While there are currently plans to bring a steel facility online in Kentucky, another plant to supplement the supply and keep steel production domestic would be ideal.

Farnsworth

• Supporting platforms for regional collaboration between states will be key for workforce development. As the industry grows, the workforce will commute over state lines.
• Ramping up manufacturing capability for offshore wind turbine components would increase the job opportunities available as projects advance.

Dagher

• From a technological perspective, investing in building a technological base in the United States to address research and development opportunities is critical.
• Encouraging the development of innovative projects on both coasts will help establish the industry. Other countries are developing stepping-stone projects in the 150- to 200-megawatt range, and the United States could do the same with future innovative projects while providing tax incentives for companies.

 

Q: What does a successful offshore wind energy industry look like in 2032?

Begala

• There will hopefully be around 2,100 turbines, presuming the United States has reached its goal of 30 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind. This translates to 6,800 miles of cable and about 30 vessels along with another 60 crew transfer vessels for service and construction. A successful industry will also have created 30,000 to 50,000 jobs.

Farnsworth

• Generating manufacturing opportunities will enhance the workforce. A successful industry will involve a truly equitable rollout of the industry, with revitalization of cities in relevant geographic areas and people in the community who are willing to join the workforce.

Dagher

• In the next five years, the United States would have deployed at least two floating wind demonstration farms in the 150- to 250-megawatt range, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast.
• By the end of the decade, the United States would have at least two ports that can support floating wind turbine deployment. As the next wave of floating offshore wind technology arrives in the 2030s, the country would be ready to further develop the domestic supply chain.

Frank

• The United States would have met its goal of generating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. The supply chain would begin to look to the second generation of projects exploring deeper and deeper waters. There will be different issues moving wind farms further offshore, including transmission challenges.

Hart

• New Jersey is scheduled to have at least one, if not three, offshore wind projects running by 2032. Building the supply chain (including port development), increasing manufacturing development, and engaging a skilled and robust workforce, will be essential in facilitating future industry development.

 

Compiled by Nathan Lee and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.