East coast states sign US offshore wind supply chain pact
Nine east coast US states and four government departments have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen regional supply chain collaboration for the country’s nascent offshore wind sector. The agreement creates a framework for regional partnerships focussed on offshore wind supply chain development. All signatories – the states of Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Rhode Island, and the departments of energy, interior, commerce and transportation – are asked to collaborate in addressing priorities such as port development, shipbuilding, and domestic steel production. The nine states will develop sub-regional implementation plans to harness each other’s existing strengths, fill high-priority gaps efficiently, and advance economic development and environmental justice. “State collaboration is the key to unleashing the full potential of a domestic supply chain,” said Liz Burdock, founder and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind. “Up to now, states have done the heavy lifting to seed our emerging supply chain and the time is right to maximise the US market’s attractiveness by driving regional collaboration.”
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.