Offshore wind could provide the US state of Texas with 166% of its electricity needs, according to a new report released today by the Environment Texas Research & Policy Center.
The report – ‘Offshore Wind for America’ – said that 19 of the 29 US states with offshore wind potential have the technical capacity to produce more electricity from the technology than they used in 2019.
Environment Texas Research & Policy Center executive director Luke Metzger said: “With strong winds in the evenings when we need energy the most, offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico would greatly complement Texas’ onshore renewable energy resources and help us achieve 100% clean power.
“We can put the infrastructure and expertise we developed for offshore drilling to work developing this abundant, clean resource.”
He added that the Gulf of Mexico has unique attributes, and challenges, for developing offshore wind.
It has shallow, warm water, small waves and existing offshore infrastructure and expertise as an advantage, but lower wind speeds and hurricane risk are challenges.
The report noted that, last year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that trends show offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico could be economical without subsidies by the early 2030s, with a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as low as $70 a megawatt-hour.
The report added that price parity could be achieved sooner if not for a “lack of current state policy commitments that are driving offshore wind development in other regions of the US”.
Environment Texas said it has called on Governor Wayne Abbott, Land Commissioner George P Bush and other state leaders to take steps to develop offshore wind off the Texas coast.
It said that according to NREL, a 600MW project off the Port Arthur shore “could support approximately 4470 jobs with $445m in gross domestic product during construction and an ongoing 150 jobs with $14m GDP annually from operation and maintenance labor, materials, and services”.