ICYMI: Offshore Wind Progress Continues as Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America Agenda Advances Innovation, Manufacturing, and Permitting

On Friday, CNN reported on "the Biden boost" for floating offshore wind, with the Biden-Harris Administration advancing American leadership on next-generation turbine technologies to harness clean energy potential in deep-water areas along the West Coast, Gulf of Maine, and other regions. President Biden's Investing in America agenda will support U.S. manufacturing of more offshore wind components, such as blades, towers, and foundations.

Today, Bloomberg reported on how offshore wind shipbuilding jobs in Louisiana reflect a broader boom in the region, with hundreds of contracts signed by companies across the Gulf of Mexico and the South to support the offshore wind supply chain, and more opportunities ahead as the Biden-Harris Administration advances offshore wind leasing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Also today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced that it has completed its environmental analysis of the proposed Ocean Wind 1 wind project offshore New Jersey, which could power up to a half million homes with clean energy. Following this key permitting step, a decision on whether to approve the proposed project is expected this summer. The Biden-Harris Administration has already approved the nation's first two commercial-scale offshore wind projects, Vineyard Wind and South Fork, now under construction and being built by union labor.

See coverage below:

CNN: The future of wind energy in the US is floating turbines as tall as 30 Rock
[Ella Nilsen, 5/19/23]

The first, full-sized floating offshore wind turbine in the United States will tower 850 feet above the waves in the Gulf of Maine – roughly as tall as New York City's famed 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

[…]

Floating wind farms have enormous energy potential, capable of producing more energy than solar panels or onshore wind. A robust set of floating turbines could unlock up to 2.8 terawatts of clean energy in the future – more than double the country's current electricity demand, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said last year.

"We now have a number of technologies that can step up to the plate and provide a very large share of electricity that is clean," White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi told CNN in a recent interview.

[…]

Arne Vatnøy, the spokesperson for trade group Norwegian Offshore Wind, called the recent flurry of activity on US offshore wind "the Biden boost."

"That's how we view it," Vatnøy told CNN. "A change in how people talk about the US and offshore wind in the same sentence after Biden."

Bloomberg: An American Oil Hub Is Pivoting to Offshore Wind
[Josh Saul, 5/22/23]

Every morning, more than 600 workers clock in at the Louisiana shipyard where the Eco Edison, the first US-built vessel to service offshore wind farms, is under construction. At quitting time, a parade of pickups and dusty sedans forms a traffic jam on the road back into town, past buildings that serve the long-dominant oil and gas industry.

This is just one slice of the energy transition reshaping the Gulf of Mexico region, which is increasingly dotted with offshore wind projects. In February, the Biden administration announced the first-ever sale of offshore wind leases in the Gulf, off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Dominion Energy Inc. is spending $500 million on the first US-built installation vessel, the 472-foot Charybdis, in Brownsville, Texas; and hundreds of people are working on the first US-built substation near Corpus Christi. In Louisiana, where the National Football League team wears black because that's the color of oil, new companies and jobs are sprouting up to support the nascent $100 billion industry.

The number of active projects show that the Gulf's offshore expertise, earned through decades of oil and gas operations, translates well to supporting wind farms currently under construction. Out of about 1,200 contracts signed by US companies for offshore needs like survey work, electric substations and cables, companies in the Gulf and the South have scored 23% of the total, according to a tally kept by the industry group Business Network for Offshore Wind.

Renews: BOEM completes Ocean Wind 1 environmental analysis
[5/22/23]

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed its environmental analysis of the proposed Ocean Wind 1 wind project off the New Jersey coast. The Orsted and PSEG JV proposes to construct up to 98 wind turbines and up to three offshore substations within its lease area.

The final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) analyses the potential environmental impacts of the activities laid out in Ocean Wind LLC's Construction and Operations Plan. The final EIS is a critical step to ensure the project can move forward while balancing the needs and interests of everyone who may be affected by the development, BOEM said.

It plans to issue a Record of Decision (ROD) on whether to approve the proposed project this summer.

[…]

If approved, Ocean Wind 1 will be the third commercial-scale offshore wind project located on the US Outer Continental Shelf approved by the Biden-Harris administration.

BOEM director Elizabeth Klein said: "BOEM continues to make progress towards a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a new clean energy industry in the United States.

"Offshore wind is a critical component of the Biden-Harris administration's strategy to tackle the climate crisis, while creating good-paying jobs and ensuring economic opportunities are accessible to all communities."