The US offshore wind pipeline now stands at just over 80GW, up 53% year-on-year, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Offshore Wind Market Report 2024.
This includes almost 4.1GW that is now under construction, more than four times what was being built in 2023.
Changes since the last report include 132MW of new offshore wind energy projects becoming operational, 2.3GW of projects approved and 25GW of new leases.
Although the economic headwinds mentioned in last year’s report did result in the cancellation of several offshore wind energy projects, the majority of those projects are already being rebid with their respective state utilities, stated the study.
“The response that the states had was to double down on their commitments to offshore wind,” said NREL offshore wind energy expert and one of the report’s authors Walt Musial.
“We even saw the state of Maine adopt new policies to procure offshore wind. I think that is a pretty positive signal.”
Eight states have set procurement mandates that total 45,730MW of offshore wind capacity by 2040, according to NREL’s research.
As of 31 May, 2024, 15 contracts to purchase 12,378MW of electricity from offshore wind power plants have been signed and are active around the country, capable of supporting the electrical needs of over 4 million American households.
In addition to state-level support, DOE estimates that $10bn in federal funding has been announced or invested in the US offshore wind supply chain since the beginning of 2021, indicating a significant level of investor confidence in the US market.
“In the last year, we’ve seen a lot of projects exiting the permitting and regulatory pipeline and moving into the construction and operating phases,” added Musial.
“There are now thousands of megawatts of domestic projects being built, and we’re seeing the reality of all that regulatory planning and development turn into real projects.”