US Offshore Wind

UtilityDive: "US can go much bigger on offshore wind: 3 lessons from the UK + Denmark" Fulfilling the requirements of law, the California Energy Commission [CEC] proposed a 10-15 gigawatt goal for 2045, enough to power just 10% of the state’s future net-zero grid. Influenced by an analysis from UC Berkeley, the CEC upped that to a 25 gigawatt [GW or billion watts = output of a nuclear or large coal plant] offshore target. But Danish + British experience suggests this ambition is still not big enough. Offshore wind is technologically mature + a cost-effective + scalable US resource. "Infrastructure and supply chain development will follow ambitious targets, but public investments are crucial to driving private investments." The global industry is booming, with China as a standout, as seen in the graph of cumulative installed offshore wind capacity by country. Ports + other infrastructure must be built out to accomodate the larger turbines used in offshore wind. Larger turbines capture more energy + have driven down costs. "U.K.’s 2022 offshore wind auction yielded contracts for 7 GW of capacity at an average of $54 per megawatt-hour, down from $147/MWh in 2014-2015." And the US Department of Energy 'Floating Offshore Wind Shot seeks to reduce floating offshore wind cost by 70%, to $45/MWh by 2035.' Note floating turbines are assembled at ports, which reduces underwater cacophany from pile-driving fixed-bottom structures, relying instead on a set of anchors arrayed around each turbine. Time to go big.   #offshorewind  #climatechange