WINDS OF CHANGE: Opportunities for Offshore Wind Energy Integration and Development in the Northeast United States

Abstract

In the face of the global climate crisis facing the world in 2018, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is a pinnacle concern. In 2017, electric power was the highest energy consuming sector by end-use. Where does all this power come from? The U.S. currently generates 63% of its electricity from fossil fuels (natural gas, coal, and petroleum). The next 20% is generated from nuclear power, and the last 17% is generated by renewables, with 6.3% coming from wind power in particular. Expand that to examine the share of generated electricity from offshore wind energy and that percentage is even smaller, .00002% to be exact. Today, accessible in U.S. waters using existing technology is a technical potential offshore wind resource capacity of 2,058 GW. That is double the total current electricity generating capacity of the entire U.S. The United States currently has one offshore wind farm in commercial operation. It’s located a few miles off the shore of Block Island, Rhode Island, and it has five 175m tall turbines that spin to produce 30 MW of power. The resource gap could not be any clearer. The driving topic question of this thesis is: despite abundant wind resources in the Northeast U.S. and a diversifying energy portfolio and industry, there has been limited offshore wind energy development in the region, and offshore wind overall remains a small part of the U.S.’s growing and diversifying national energy portfolio. The research presented in this thesis set out to explore that question at length, provide an answer, and make recommendations moving forward to facilitate future progress and development in the U.S. offshore wind industry. The research presented in this thesis uses a four-factor analysis framework: technical, economic, political, and social to examine the success of the European offshore wind energy industry, the challenges and failures to-date of the U.S. industry, and a direct comparative case study between the successful Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island and cancelled Cape Wind wind farm in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The key points of emphasis from the European and U.S. industry analyses are as follows: (1) Intelligent project location and the natural geographic resources of that location are essential to a project’s success. A poorly-cited wind farm will not produce adequate amounts of electricity, present a realm of challenges in the installation and operation processes, and as Cape Wind unfortunately displayed, garner a Pandora’s box of social and political opposition. (2) An accessible and local manufacturing supply chain and supporting infrastructure resources are essential to avoiding sky-high costs, logistical nightmares, regulatory compliance issues, and painstakingly slow progress. (3) Political and social engagement and support is the most important non-technical element of projects. The political and social environment of a project can cripplingly influence the regulatory web that must be navigated to take an offshore project from proposal to operation. The thesis concludes with three policy recommendations to promote the U.S. offshore wind industry: (1) a call for a permitting, approval, and construction process restructuring and reorganization led by the BOEM and DOI; (2) a federal subsidy to encourage domestic offshore wind manufacturing and supply chain development; (3) a joint effort from the Coastal States to set a federal long-term offshore wind target.