Courtesy: Maine Port Authority

The U.S. offshore wind industry is off and running.

While the industry remains in its infancy and virtually no commercial-scale offshore wind farms are in operation in U.S. waters, there appears to be enough committed capacity to reach President Joe Biden’s goal of 30 GW deployed by 2030.

But perhaps the greatest limitation to growth of offshore wind in the U.S. is the availability of infrastructure to support the industry. Few ports are currently capable of serving the industry’s manufacturing, staging, and assembly needs with its massive components and vessels, according to a supply chain report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Officials in Maine have formed a panel to advise state officials on the state’s potential development of port facilities to capitalize on the “environmental and economic benefits” of the growing offshore wind market in the U.S., according to a press release.

The Offshore Wind Port Advisory Group will bridge stakeholder input with public engagement around the topic of port development. The inaugural panel will feature 19 members representing local, regional, and statewide stakeholders, including representatives from environmental, business, port and marine transportation, fishing, labor, construction, and conservation interests.

The panel features representatives from the Sierra Club Maine, Maine Port Authority, University of Maine, and the Maine Governor’s Office, among others. The panel is expected to meet for the first time later this month.

Join us on April 13th for the next edition of the Renewable +Series on offshore wind. Developers, advocates, and policymakers will discuss the future of floating offshore wind energy in the U.S. Register here. 

Of the 22 East Coast ports analyzed by NREL to gauge their ability to support fixed-bottom offshore wind activities, only the Portsmouth Marine Terminal in Virginia has existing capabilities to support the logistics of wind turbine installation vessels.

Unlike the bulk of planned offshore wind developments along the East Coast, however, Maine will require port infrastructure that is capable of support floating offshore wind platforms due to its deeper waters.

The West Coast ultimately may be home to most of the U.S. floating offshore wind development activity with planned lease auctions for areas off Northern and Central California this fall. Even so, none of the 13 West Coast ports analyzed by NREL are prepared at present to support the floating offshore wind industry.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management expects to hold a lease auction for the rights to develop offshore wind areas in the Gulf of Maine sometime next year.