US releases strategy to enable 86 GW of offshore wind by 2050

The US Department of Energy (DoE) and Department of the Interior (DoI) on Friday released a new offshore wind strategy that could help see 86 GW of offshore wind deployed in the country by 2050.

The plan builds on the departments' first joint offshore wind strategy in 2011 and comes just weeks after America's first commercial offshore wind farm, the 30-MW Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island, completed construction.

The DoE estimated in its Wind Vision report last year that the US could build 86 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050, which would support 160,000 jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.8%. To put the country on track towards that level of deployment the strategy identifies actions that DoE and DoI can take over the next five years to address the challenges facing the industry. These fall into three areas: reducing the costs and technical risks; providing regulatory certainty and mitigating environmental risks; and improving the market conditions for investment in offshore wind energy.

The announcement of the strategy followed a tour of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Wind Technology Testing Center (WTTC) by Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

.@ENERGY Sec. @ErnestMoniz cites building of infrastructure such as WTTC crucial to developing offshore wind in US pic.twitter.com/LWG34SlDJc

— MACleanEnergyCenter (@MassCEC) 9 September 2016

Since 2010, DoI has issued 11 leases for offshore wind development that, the document says, could support a total of 14.6 GW. The Block Island wind farm, which is expected to go live by the end of 2016, was the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) first right-of-way grant.

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) commended the administration for its commitment to developing offshore wind. "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," said Nancy Sopko, manager, advocacy and federal legislative affairs. The association noted that the US onshore wind fleet has surpassed 75 GW of installed capacity.

The strategy can be viewed here.

Below is a video from DoE.

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