How and why Joe Biden will wave wind power
President Biden has defined offshore wind as a priority target for addressing the climate crisis. All the details
The US administration's turnaround in energy policies following the election of president Joe Biden is setting the stage for the explosion of a thriving US offshore wind industry. The federal government is looking to speed up environmental regulatory reviews to make offshore wind an industry that can make a significant contribution to new clean energy goals.
WIND OFFSHORE NEVER REALLY TAKE OFF IN THE USA
In the United States, offshore wind has never really taken off, with only two small parks in operation with less than 50 megawatts (MW) of combined capacity. Just for comparison, Europe has 113 offshore wind farms in 12 countries, with 25 gigawatts (GW) of total offshore wind capacity according to WindEurope data.
And to think that in terms of onshore wind and solar installations, the United States is breaking records after records in 2020, according to the American Clean Power Association.
While offshore wind has lagged significantly behind, not least due to lengthy environmental reviews by federal agencies.
AMENDMENT OF THE FEDERAL POLICY
President Biden has called offshore wind a priority target in one of his first executive orders to tackle the climate crisis. While suspending new leases for the exploitation of oil and natural gas on public land or offshore waters, Biden ordered the Secretary of the Interior to identify measures that can be taken to double renewable energy production from offshore wind by 2030.
In fact, if we compare current US production, the level of offshore wind generation is very low, as noted by the Wall Street Journal.
THE PROJECTS OF THE AMERICAN STATES
But the radical change in energy priorities could incentivize more projects, especially among American states on the east coast: just think of New York which is setting ambitious targets for clean energy. East Coast states have planned more than 20GW of offshore wind so far, while developers expect to be able to put 9.1 GW into operation by 2026 by developing 13 offshore wind projects, according to the American Clean Power Association.
The 800 MW Vineyard Wind project, 15 miles off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, is set to become the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States and will begin providing power in 2023. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM ) announced earlier this month that it will resume the environmental review of the project. The entire review had been halted late last year by the Trump administration following a request from Vineyard Wind developers to suspend the process to see if the project needed any changes after switching turbine suppliers.
MORE FLUID AUTHORIZATION PROCESSES COULD CREATE A $ 166 BILLION INDUSTRY
With smoother support policies and leasing and licensing processes, offshore wind development could generate a lot of value for the U.S. economy and create thousands of jobs, Wood Mackenzie said last year in research commissioned by associations of sector.
According to WoodMac's calculations, the US has the potential to facilitate investments of $ 166 billion by 2035 and 25 GW of offshore wind capacity is expected to be added by 2029 alone.
"States have already selected 9 GW of capacity, representing more than 70% of planned construction through 2026. And in New England and New York, 80% of wind construction over this period will be located offshore," WoodMac said. a report in June 2020.
EVEN BIG OIL BETS A LOT ON US OFFSHORE WIND
Some of Europe's big oils, keen to demonstrate their low-carbon energy commitments and expand clean energy portfolios, have already moved to seize these opportunities. BP made its first move into the offshore wind market in September with a strategic partnership in US offshore wind assets with Equinor in a $ 1.1 billion deal, Oilprice reported.
BP has acquired 50% of Equinor's Empire Wind and Beacon Wind assets off Long Island and offshore Massachusetts, respectively, and will develop up to 4.4 GW. Not only. Se, ère Equinor and BP were selected last month to participate in the largest U.S. offshore wind tender to date to provide New York State with wind power from the first and second phase of Empire Wind and Beacon Wind for a total of of 3.3 GW.
Article taken from Energia Oltre, here the full version.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/joe-biden-eolico/ on Sat, 20 Feb 2021 06:39:31 +0000.