Biden Is Pouring Billions into Offshore Wind Energy. Will It Be Enough?

Susan Stewart, a Penn State engineering professor specializing in wind energy, waited more than 10 years to see an offshore wind turbine up close. A pregnancy caused her to miss a chance in 2005 to tour offshore turbines in Europe. There, offshore wind farms have produced clean energy since the early 1990s, but regulatory roadblocks and a lack of political will left plans for U.S. plants moldering in filing cabinets for years. Finally, in 2016, Stewart and a group of colleagues toured America’s first ocean wind farm, which had just been installed off Block Island, a popular Rhode Island vacation spot. “I was so excited,” Stewart says of seeing the turbines. “They’re majestic to me.” While historic, that Block Island plant produces only about 30 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to power about 20,000 average U.S. houses—or about 4% of Rhode Island’s homes. By comparison, a typical coal plant produces about 600 MW. In total, offshore wind farms currently generate just 42 MW in the U.S. But under an ambitious $3 billion Biden Administration plan unveiled last week, the U.S. is set to multiply that output to 30 gigawatts (GW)—30,000 MW—by the end of this decade. Among other things, the package includes federal loan guarantees for offshore wind development, a new “priority wind energy area” between Long Island and New Jersey, and funding for port improvements around the country to make it easier to build ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news