What’s Trending: US Offshore Wind
If you’ve been seeing more and more articles come across your news feed related to offshore wind it stands to reason, as states up and down the coast make efforts to implement both long and short term goals around offshore wind power and procurement. On a national scale, President Biden has pledged to facilitate putting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the water by 2030. States such as Maryland, New York, North Carolina and Massachusetts are already in the fray, and according to E&E News, developers are planning 16 projects along the East Coast, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) set to – for the first time – auction off leases in the Gulf of Maine and the Gulf of Mexico near California. What’s more, the Department of Interior announced recently that the BOEM will hold a wind auction in February for more than 488,00 acres off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. US states have procured over 17,100 MW of offshore wind, nearly double the January total of 9,100 MW.
On a local level, a few projects on the horizon include:
- Maryland:
- New York:
- Massachusetts:
- Massachusetts announced two offshore wind projects, totaling 1,600 MW of new capacity, bringing the state to 3,200 MW of a 5,600 MW offshore wind procurement goal by 2027.
- Across the Nation:
- In his first week in office, President Biden issued an Executive Order that calls for a clean energy economy, but more specifically, the Order aims to expand the offshore wind industry. According to the Fact Sheet, meeting the target of 30 Gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 would generate enough power to meet the demand of more than 10 million American homes for a year, and avoid 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.
However, the projects don’t come without their own challenges:
- Experts are warning that the challenge of connecting large amounts of offshore wind to an aging onshore grid may be much larger than initially realized.
- Most climate solutions require trade-offs, and in this case, that might mean relying on oil companies with their checkered pasts to help build an offshore wind industry.
What does that mean for you business?
In both the short and the long term, if your organization is interested in procuring wind power by way of RECs, APPI Energy can help. Contact out team today to learn more how your organization can procure renewable energy.