Wind

'Growing pains' | US offshore wind resilient in the face of economic turmoil: BNOW

Despite setbacks that saw a third project cancelled and 4GW of New York capacity put at risk, industry lobbyist said sector remains strong in Q3 market report

Liz Burdock of BNOW.
Liz Burdock of BNOW.Foto: BNOW

Despite setbacks amid global inflationary headwinds, US offshore wind showed its resilience as projects advanced and supply chain investments grew, according to lobby group Business Network for Offshore Wind (BNOW) in its third quarter market report.

While the quarter saw another project cancelled – Iberdrola-controlled Avangrid’s 804MW Park City to Connecticut – bringing the total withdrawn capacity to 3.2GW, the nation’s first two commercial-scale projects, the 800MW Vineyard Wind and 132MW South Fork, made strides in their installation and are expected to begin powering the grid before year’s end.
Meanwhile, New York stunned the industry by refusing to play ball with developers Equinor-BP and Orsted-Eversource, putting over 4GW of capacity in jeopardy even as the pipeline of approved projects increased by 1.8GW with another some 5GW is slated for full permitting within weeks.

"The US offshore wind market felt its growing pains over the past quarter, taking two steps forward and two steps back,” said Liz Burdock, BNOW’s chief executive.

“Building up a new industry was always going to include challenges and setbacks; right now, we must remain diligent in our work to build a sustainable industry and supply chain.

“Beyond the headlines, we saw important advancements in our permitting process, state collaboration, and continued supply chain development that will lay the foundation for long-term market strength,” she added.

The market report highlighted shipbuilding and secondary steel as the “strongest subsectors in the US offshore wind supply chain”.

Orsted’s expansion of its contract with engineering firm Riggs Distler to provide critical internal turbine components for its mid-Atlantic portfolio enabled New York steel supplier Ljungstrom, which is transitioning out of oil and gas to offshore wind, to expand its workforce to 350, “double what it was just a few years ago”, BNOW noted.
In shipbuilding, Wisconsin-based Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding and Loui­siana-based Edison Chouest both marked milestones on the second and third new-build Service Operations Vessels (SOV) for the US market.

Each vessel costs around $200m and is designed to keep maintenance technicians at sea for several weeks.

President Joe Biden, who sparked tremendous growth in the sector by laying out the national capacity target of 30GW by 2030, was on hand at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Great Lakes Dredge and Dock (GLDD)’s new $300m rock dumping vessel under construction at Philly Shipyards in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The rock dumper is slated for Equinor-BP's New York portfolio.

(Copyright)
Published 17 October 2023, 15:49Updated 18 October 2023, 10:27
AmericasUSBNOWOrsted