Offshore Wind Power is Growing and for Good Reason
The U.S. has been slow to adopt offshore wind power to meet clean energy goals, a fact highlighted by the reality that our nation has less than 1% of offshore wind capacity compared to Europe. However, this is changing, as there are currently 10,000 megawatts of projects under development along the East Coast alone.
Why Offshore Wind Power is on the Rise
There several reasons for the renewed interest in offshore wind power:
- The technology is more efficient than it was when it was introduced about a decade ago.
- Development costs are declining
- Offshore developers have greater access to financing programs.
- European developers are increasingly bringing their expertise to the U.S.
- Onshore land for renewable projects, especially in densely-populated regions like the northeast, is increasingly scarce.
- The overall preponderance of renewable energy targets.
The emergence of offshore wind power projects is encouraging. Climate change is increasing the frequency of severe weather events, which (hopefully) is a trend that can be reversed on the heels of clean energy mandates. And some of these goals are aggressive, so the U.S. needs all the help it can get to meet or exceed them.
Offshore wind power is just what the doctor ordered. The technology still has a way to go before it is perfected, but now the technology has reached the tipping point where development activity is rapidly increasing. Of course, there are still issues around the integration of renewable energy sources like this into the electric grid, but those impediments will be worked out sooner or later. The bottom line is that the time for offshore wind power is now.
