Canadian Baseload Prices Head Lower, Top Volumes as July Natural Gas Bidweek Ends - Natural Gas Intelligence
Canadian Baseload Prices Head Lower, Top Volumes as July Natural Gas Bidweek Ends
July baseload natural gas prices for Canadian hubs weakened further during the final day of bidweek trading on Wednesday, while Lower 48 hubs maintained an overall upward trajectory from June, according to NGI’s Bidweek Alert.
The onset of summer cooling demand has helped drive gains for Lower 48 baseload prices. Record heat in mid-June was expected to further draw down storage surpluses in the next government storage report on Thursday. The heat was forecast to return in force over the July 4 holiday.
However, that strength in prices did not carry over into Canada, which saw baseload prices for another two of its hubs fall below C$1.000/GJ for the first time since 2019.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.