The US will have installed about 2.2GW of offshore wind capacity by 2026, according to a new report by Make Consulting.
The report – ‘2017 North America Wind Power Outlook’ – says robust state-level policies in the north-east US will help support the development of at least one new project a year out to 2026.
Overall, including onshore developments, the US will install about 59GW of new projects between 2017 and 2026, Make said.
The consultancy said between 2017 and 2020 will be a “boom period” as the production tax credit drives almost 40GW of new capacity.
However, installation volume will peak in 2020 when wind power will “effectively be left to compete on a levelized cost of energy basis”, the report said.
“Due to competition amid sustained low natural gas prices and the rapidly falling cost of solar power, wind installations in this environment will be limited to a fraction of US states with favourable land availability, wind resources and available transmission capacity,” Make said.
In Canada, about 6.2GW of new wind capacity will be installed between 2017 and 2026, the report said.
Eastern Canada will host most of the new capacity, which is predicted to come online by 2019, after which “the region’s outlook will decline amidst dwindling political support for new wind power, a largely decarbonized electricity sector and lacklustre growth in electricity demand”.
Image: reNEWS
US offshore to ‘top 2.2GW in 2026′
Make Consulting report says ‘robust state-level policies' will drive sector
By EBS