Biden administration launches major push to expand offshore wind power
Source: Washington Post
The White House announced Monday an ambitious plan to expand wind farms along the East Coast and jumpstart the country’s nascent offshore wind industry, saying that it would trigger a massive clean energy effort in the fight against climate change. The plan would generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by the end of the decade - enough to power more than 10 million American homes and cut 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The Biden administration said it would speed permitting for projects off the East Coast, invest in research and development, provide low-interest loans to industry and fund changes to U.S. ports.
“We are ready to rock and roll," National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy told reporters in a phone call Monday. Offshore wind power will generate “thousands of good paying union jobs. This is all about creating great jobs in the ocean and in our port cities and in our heartland,” she said. The new initiative represents a major stretch for the United States. The country has only one offshore wind project online right now, generating 30 megawatts off Rhode Island. It is currently on track to generate 15 gigawatts by 2030, according to Rystad Energy vice president for vice president Vegard Wiik Vollset. “A drastic acceleration of this is going to be needed if we’re going to hit those targets,” Wiik Vollset said in a phone interview.
Biden officials outlined a plan for speeding up offshore wind development, by setting concrete deadlines for reviewing and approving permit applications; establishing a new wind energy area in the waters between Long Island and the New Jersey coast; investing $230 million upgrade U.S. ports; and providing $3 billion in potential loans for the offshore wind industry through the Energy Department. The program also instructs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to share physical and biological data with Ørsted, a Danish offshore wind development firm, about the U.S. waters where it holds leases.
NOAA will grant $1 million to help study the impact of offshore wind operations on fishing operators as well as coastal communities. The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium, a joint project of DOE and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, will also give $8 million in research grants to 15 offshore wind research and development projects.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/03/29/biden-wind-power/
Need to also work on the grids!
= new reply since forum marked as read
