Offshore Wind Industry Is Caught In a Financial Hurricane
The question of who pays for the relatively high cost of generating power out at sea has become more contentious in an era of high inflation and interest rates.
The storm has arrived.
Photographer: Miguel Riopa/AFP via Getty Images
The US offshore wind industry is, in a sense, an admission of failure.
Consider that onshore wind-power potential in the US is estimated to be as much as 2.28 terawatts -- roughly double the entire capacity of all types of generation operating today — and perhaps as much as 15 terawatts. Offshore wind-power potential, in the lower 48 states, is estimated at 4.2 terawatts. The latter is also a huge number but suffers one disadvantage: Offshore wind currently costs about two to five times that of its onshore counterpart, which is the cheapest source of electricity to build in the US today.1