President Joe Biden's administration will push the offshore wind sector into deeper waters, establishing a new goal for projects using floating turbines over the next 13 years.
The US by 2035 will strive to add 15,000MW of floating offshore wind capacity, enough to power more than 5mn households, the US Department of the Interior said today.
Reaching the milestone would avoid around 26mn metric tonnes/yr of CO2 emissions, according to Interior's estimates.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will advance wind lease areas for projects in deeper waters to fulfill the objective, beginning with a previously announced auction for territory off the California coast before the end of the year.
The new target expands on Biden's existing goal for 30,000MW of offshore wind by 2030. The 2030 goal will rely mostly on projects with fixed-bottom turbines suitable for relatively shallow waters. In contrast, developers are depending on floating turbines to establish projects in areas with deeper waters, which includes the US west coast.
While California, Oregon and Washington have all committed to 100pc carbon-free electricity by 2045 at the latest, offshore wind has less of a foothold on the west coast as a result of engineering challenges and cost concerns. Projects in the northeastern US account for most of the country's offshore wind pipeline because they rely on the fixed turbines, rather than the more expensive, floating turbines needed in the Pacific's deeper waters.
US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said her department has "a leasing strategy" but declined to elaborate on areas other than the west coast and Gulf of Maine — regions already highlighted by BOEM — that regulators could ultimately target for leases.
The administration will support the 15,000MW aspiration from several angles. The first is an extension of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) "Energy Earthshot" program, designed to advance newer clean technologies — including hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, geothermal and carbon capture and sequestration — by breaking down technology and cost barriers.
Through that initiative, the administration endeavors to cut costs for floating turbine technology by over 70pc by 2035, bringing it down to $45/MWh, through a combination of research, demonstration projects and technology improvements, as well as building out domestic supply chain and transmission infrastructure.
The floating wind "earthshot" will be a cross-sector collaboration between DOE, Interior, the US Department of Commerce and US Department of Transportation.
DOE will also invest $50mn into research, development and demonstration projects, with portions of the funding from last year's infrastructure bill. That research will touch on various aspects of the industry, ranging from utility-scale projects to port upgrades to wildlife protection measures.
