U.S. Greenlights Major Offshore Wind Project
The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has approved a large-scale offshore wind power project that it says would power more than 380,000 homes and “create more than 3,000 good-paying jobs.”
The Ocean Wind 1 project, to be located off the coast of New Jersey, will have a capacity of 1.1 GW. It is part of a broader plan by the Biden administration to build 30 GW of offshore wind power capacity by 2030.
The Ocean Wind 1 project will be led by Danish turbine major Ørsted, which recently revealed plans to invest some $68 billion in building 50 GW of new capacity by 2030.
The Danish company at the same time complained about “soaring costs” which prompted the company to ask for more subsidies from the UK government for its biggest project to date, the 3-GW Hornsea 3 installation.
“If a project which is by far the biggest in the world, with all these opportunities, can only become investable after having worked intensively for a year with everything, it’s hopefully also a stark reminder to the British government that something must change,” Ørsted’s chief executive Mads Nipper said in June.
In the United States, there is plenty of government support for wind and solar power from the Inflation Reduction Act. Yet even there, Ørsted is facing challenges related to costs.
In a recent report by Reuters, the company was said to consider reconfiguring the Ocean Wind 2 project, after being quoted as declaring reconfigurations and potential project exits would be its response to uncertain profitability.
"The project's approval demonstrates the federal government's commitment to developing clean energy and fighting climate change and is a testament to the state of New Jersey's leadership in supporting sustainable sources of energy and economic development for coastal communities," the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Elizabeth Klein, said in comments on the news about Ocean Winds 1.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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