US Offshore Wind Pipeline Reaches 80GW

According to the National Renewable Energy Labatory’s Offshore Wind Market Report 2024, the US offshore wind pipeline is up 53% year-on-year, now surpassing 80GW. This quantity also includes almost 4.1GW that is now under construction, over quadruple what was being built in 2023.

Since the last report, the changes include 132MW of new offshore wind energy projects that are now operational, 2.3GW of projects approved and 25GW of new leases. Following last year’s report, there were several cancellations of offshore wind energy projects. However, the majority of those projects are already being rebid with their respective state utilities.

“The response that the states had was to double down on their commitments to offshore wind,” said NREL offshore wind energy expert and one of the report’s authors Walt Musial. “We even saw the state of Maine adopt new policies to procure offshore wind. I think that is a pretty positive signal.”

8 states have set procurement mandates that total 45,730MW of offshore wind capacity by 2040, according to NREL’s research. As of May 2024, 15 contracts to purchase 12,378MW of electricity from offshore wind power plants have been signed and are active around the country. This is expected to be able to support the energy needs of 4 million households in America.

In support on a state level, it is estimated that $10bn in federal funding has been announced or invested in the US offshore wind supply chain since the beginning of 2021, suggesting a significant level of investor confidence in the US market.

“In the last year, we’ve seen a lot of projects exiting the permitting and regulatory pipeline and moving into the construction and operating phases,” added Musial. “There are now thousands of megawatts of domestic projects being built, and we’re seeing the reality of all that regulatory planning and development turn into real projects.”

According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), renewable energy in the US now makes up 30% of total electricity capacity. This includes wind, solar, biomass, geothermal and hydropower.

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Sources

https://renews.biz/95217/us-offshore-wind-pipeline-hits-80gw

https://www.energylivenews.com/2024/08/22/renewable-energy-reaches-30-of-us-capacity/