Biden administration gives offshore wind farms a big boost
Offshore wind farms could be coming to nearly every coastline along the continental US. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland today announced plans to auction off leases to developers for up to seven new areas by 2025. That includes waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine, Central Atlantic, New York Bight (between Long Island and New Jersey), and off the coasts of Oregon, California, and the Carolinas.
It’s a big scaling up of offshore wind in the US, which lags far behind Europe when it comes to deployment. The US’ first commercial-scale offshore wind farm just got federal approval in May. Two existing, smaller operations in US waters have a combined capacity of just 42 megawatts. The Biden administration set a goal of pushing capacity up to 30,000 MW by 2030. Europe, home to a majority of the world’s offshore wind, already had nearly that much installed in 2020.
The US’ first offshore wind projects are all along the East Coast. Expanding to other shores will come with new technical challenges. On the Pacific coast, waters get much deeper, much closer to shore compared to the US’ Atlantic coastline. That makes it more difficult to affix turbines to the seafloor. The White House announced in May that it would open up two areas off the California coast to commercial-scale wind farms and indicated that it might turn to new technology for floating wind farms.
Turbines in the Gulf of Mexico will have to contend with hurricanes and soft soils, recent studies from the National Renewable Energy Lab found. Still, shallow water and smaller waves make the Gulf ripe for wind development. New offshore wind industry here could potentially also benefit from existing infrastructure and know-how from the region’s history of offshore oil and gas drilling. The very first wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island was built with the help of ships from Louisiana.
“We are working to facilitate a pipeline of projects that will establish confidence for the offshore wind industry,” said Amanda Lefton, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in a statement today. It could still take years to get offshore turbines up and running. Proposed wind farms have historically struggled with permitting delays, local opposition, and a shortage of specialized installation ships.
But with droughts, wildfires, storms, and coastal flooding growing more intense in the US as a result of climate change, there’s no time to lose in the transition to clean energy. The Biden administration’s offshore wind push is part of a larger goal to get the country’s electricity grid running entirely on clean energy by 2035 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
Offshore wind farms could be coming to nearly every coastline along the continental US. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland today announced plans to auction off leases to developers for up to seven new areas by 2025. That includes waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine, Central Atlantic, New York…
Recent Posts
- Quordle today – hints and answers for Friday, April 26 (game #823)
- NYT Strands today — hints, answers and spangram for Friday, April 26 (game #54)
- Sony’s PlayStation Portal handheld is back in stock at multiple retailers
- Apple is launching new iPads May 7: Here’s what to expect from the ‘Let Loose’ event
- Baltimore coach accused of using AI voice cloning to try to get a high school principal fired
Archives
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011