The Biden administration announced new initiatives Thursday to stand up thousands of megawatts of floating offshore wind capacity over the next decade to supplement fixed wind capacity constructed in more shallow waters.
The administration set a goal of deploying 15 gigawatts of installed floating offshore wind capacity, enough to power 5 million homes, by 2035, the deadline President Joe Biden set for achieving a carbon-free power sector. Officials also announced new programs at the Department of Energy designed to help make floating wind technologies cheaper and ensure they can be deployed at a commercial scale.
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More than half of the nation’s offshore wind resources are in deep waters, where it’s uneconomical to build traditional offshore wind foundations, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told reporters Thursday, meaning floating wind technologies will enable developers to access windy areas “once thought unattainable.”
“Floating wind has incredible potential,” Haaland said. “It can establish the United States as a global leader in advancing new technology, and thus new projects, and it can help us achieve our climate and economic goals in ways that protect the environment and coexist with other ocean users.”
Agencies, including the Department of the Interior, had already been working toward Biden’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.
Interior and its Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversees the leasing of federal acreage in the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas and wind development, plans to hold its first lease sale for deep water acreage off the coast of California by the end of this year.
Other areas being considered for floating wind are the Coos Bay off the southern coast of Oregon, as well as the Gulf of Maine.
Meeting the new 15-gigawatt goal would avoid an estimated 26 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, according to a White House fact sheet.
As part of the effort, the Energy Department has also developed a new floating offshore “wind shot,” where the goal is to lower costs of production by more than 70% by 2035.
“We think the private sector is going to quickly see the real opportunity here, not only to triple the country’s accessible offshore wind resources, but to make the U.S. a global leader in manufacturing and deploying offshore wind designs,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act provided hundreds of billions of dollars in tax incentives for renewable energy technologies, including through production and investment tax credits.
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The law also added new contingencies linking offshore wind leasing to oil and gas leasing offshore.
Specifically, the bill would prohibit the Interior Department from issuing an offshore wind lease in the Outer Continental Shelf unless it carries out an offshore oil and gas lease sale during the prior year.
