April 20, 2024 –As offshore wind developers deploy the first large arrays along the U.S. East Coast, plans are in motion to create an offshore grid network.
The first large offshore wind farms, such as the 800 MW Vineyard Wind 1, opens new tab project in Massachusetts, will connect to land via direct ‘radial’ transmission lines but an interlinked offshore network along the U.S. Northeast coast could help optimise wind assets and make the grid more reliable, according to a two-year study by the Department of Energy (DOE).
The Biden administration aims to install 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and the DOE proposes an interregional transmission network built over the next decade that would offer a higher benefit to cost ratio than other scenarios.
Offshore wind capacity of 30 GW would require 24 points of interconnection and 14 of these would offer “weak grid strength conditions” for offshore wind output if only radial links were developed, the DOE said in its report, based on research by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).