POWER May 2020 - 22

WIND ENERGY
Offshore Wind Finding
Direction in U.S.
Europe has a big head start globally when it comes to generating power from
offshore wind installations. The U.S. has lagged due to a variety of factors,
including the need to work through regulatory issues. Industry insiders,
though, agree the sector is poised for rapid growth off American shores.
Darrell Proctor
O
ffshore wind installations already
are delivering on their promise as
a transformative technology for
power generation, with projects off European
coasts providing proving grounds
for the industry. U.S. adoption of offshore
wind has been slower, owing in part to
regulatory issues and political will.
The first commercial offshore wind
farm in the U.S.-the 30-MW Block Island
installation off the Rhode Island
coast (Figure 1)-began operation in
late 2016, and as of April 2020 is still
the nation's only operating project. The
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said
recently the country has the potential
to access more than 2,000 GW of offshore
wind power along the nation's
coasts and the Great Lakes, and several
projects are in the development stage,
most along the Eastern Seaboard.
" Offshore wind has proven to be invaluable
to other parts of the world but
that doesn't mean it's not without its
challenges, both from a political and infrastructure
development standpoint, "
said Anthony Bond, president of BOND
Civil & Utility Construction-a company
based in the Boston, Massachusetts,
suburb of Medford-in a question-andanswer
session with POWER. " We've
been hearing about offshore wind for
quite some time, but I think the development
of larger turbines [up to 12 MW
per turbine] coupled with the 'lessons
learned' from Europe and more reasonable
price points will finally allow offshore
wind to take off. I think the challenge will
be aligning all lines of government to ensure
that it goes forward. "
That alignment has been lacking as
companies line up to pursue offshore
wind projects, only to be stymied by government
red tape. The Trump administration
through the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) last year raised
concerns among U.S. developers when it
delayed the 800-MW Vineyard Wind proj22
1.
The Block Island wind farm off Rhode Island,
a POWER Top Plant in 2017, is still the
only operating offshore wind installation in
the U.S. Several new projects, though, are
expected to come online over the next few
years. Courtesy: Deepwater Wind
ect off Massachusetts, calling for further
environmental review of the installation,
saying it needed to look at the combined
impacts of all projects planned off the
East Coast. Industry analysts have said
those types of issues must be solved for
the U.S. offshore sector to grow.
" I would call it the two C's, commercialization
and conformity, " said Robert
Freedman, an energy expert and partner
in the Project Development & Finance
practice at New York-based Shearman &
Sterling. " Conformity is, you need some
type of uniform set of rules that people
can understand, that people can trust are
the same, and can be applied similarly.
The EU [European Union] has a directive
for offshore wind, a much more uniform
regime. The U.S. has a patchwork ... even
with the BOEM, it's not clear how it will
be applied. When you have that type of
situation, where [you] just don't have the
conformity among different jurisdictions
and even within the same agency, a clear
path or message, that's going to make it
very difficult. "
Freedman added, " As far as commercialization,
there similarly needs to be a
clear path, as to this is the technology
we're going to use. " He said the investment
community is looking for environmental,
social,
and governance (ESG)
platforms. " The next move is toward
www.powermag.com
next level, commercializing ESG, " he
said. " There's too much uncertainty right
now. How am I going to deal with a situation
like the Vineyard issue? What if the
project gets delayed, and how do I know
when [it will be in operation]? "
" What is lacking is a coherent public
policy program supportive of the offshore
space, " John Miller, ESG senior
research analyst with Calvert Research
and Management, told POWER. " In
the U.S., most prime offshore locations
are owned by the federal government,
requiring leasing and environmental negotiations
with the BOEM. Wholesale
power markets are regulated by the federal
government via FERC [Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission], but most
of this day-to-day is executed by the ISO
[independent system operator] or RTO
[regional transmission organization], requiring
successfully bidding into these
markets. Lastly, the states dictate final
rate structures for consumers, meaning
a project will need to successfully manage
the utility-level offtake process. All
three of these negotiations are time-consuming
and lack developed processes
or timelines. Further, all three of these
negotiations can be project killers, either
from an environmental/permitting perspective
or from cost. "
Looking to Europe
Fabio Fracaroli, senior director, Renewable
Segment North America for ABB,
told POWER the U.S. should look to Europe
for examples of how to grow the
offshore wind industry. " Europe has
been pioneering the evolution of offshore
wind. In 1991, Denmark's Vindeby
was the world's first offshore wind farm.
Europe has been successful in their offshore
wind efforts due to differences in
their policy, regulatory, and market conditions.
Differences in the relative market
conditions there also offered an avenue
for them to bring this forward earlier. "
Fracaroli continued: " Globally, but esPOWER
| May 2020
http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2020

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