January 8, 2024 — The offshore wind industry is hoping for new momentum in 2024 to counter the broken contracts, canceled wind farms and missed targets characterizing its last 18 months.
While experts say the nascent industry is getting back on its feet after being thrashed by inflationary costs and an immature supply chain after the pandemic, the enormous scale of building a new U.S. renewable sector from scratch still poses significant challenges that could stall a key plank of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.
“There is an adjustment going on in the industry that I read very clearly as we’re trying to build an industry for which we have no supply chain,” said Eric Hines, an engineering professor at Tufts University who studies the offshore wind industry. “Our demand has outstripped not only the U.S. supply chain but the global supply chain.”
The obstacles are coming to a head as Biden faces a tough election year and is aiming to prove his climate bona fides to needed voters on the left, some of whom have criticized the administration for not meeting 2020 campaign promises such as ending new oil drilling on public lands.
The Interior Department has 10 months to deliver on other White House offshore wind promises before Election Day, including pledges to approve 16 wind arrays by 2025 and hold lease sales in areas like the Gulf of Maine.
But optimism for the industry is growing as inflation eases and interest rates trend downward. Also, states have boosted enthusiasm by seeking contracts for a whopping 14 gigawatts of offshore wind power despite the harsh economic realities that have pushed up prices to build wind farms.
“I think the headlines are different for 2024,” said Theodore Paradise, an energy attorney at K&L Gates. “We’ve got better contracts, we’ve got better timelines, we’ve got a better sense of the supply chain.”
With the administration and industry set to make decisions in coming months that will drive the industry’s future, here are three issues to watch with offshore wind in 2024: