The U.S. is making plans to boost its wind production to compete with other major players and become an international hub for the renewable energy source. The United States might be moving late, compared to major wind markets in Europe, but Biden is rapidly changing the face of the country’s wind energy sector, offering it the potential for rapid, widescale growth. President Biden believes the U.S. could swiftly grow its wind power to rival that of Europe and Asia, which have both already established strong wind energy sectors over the past few decades. The government is now aiming for 15GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035. The White House recently released a statement saying, “The Biden-Harris Administration is launching coordinated actions to develop new floating offshore wind platforms, an emerging clean energy technology that will help the United States lead on offshore wind.”
This new aim builds upon Biden’s existing target of 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, mainly coming from fixed-bottom installations. The government expects 15 GW could power over 5 million homes with clean energy. By investing heavily in the rollout of floating wind installations, the cost of the technology is expected to be reduced by around 70 percent by 2035, to $45 per megawatt-hour.
The floating wind turbine technology means that the installations can be installed in deeper water than the fixed-bottom versions. This would expand America’s wind potential by allowing energy companies to access wind resources in untapped waters. The Department of Energy (DoE) believes there are around 4.3 terawatts (4,300GW) of potential wind energy off the U.S. coastline, with only 1.5 terawatts available in areas where fixed-bottom turbines could be constructed.
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