Blog Archive - Offshore Wind
Three Questions with Kristin Urbach, Executive Director of the Connecticut Offshore Wind Collaborative
At the beginning of this year, the State of Connecticut launched the Connecticut Wind Collaborative (CWC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the offshore wind industry in the state. The CWC was conceptualized in Connecticut’s Offshore Wind Strategic Roadmap, published last October. CESA’s Sam Schacht spoke to CWC Executive Director, Kristin Urbach, about how she sees the new organization…
Three Questions with Kathryn Wright, Senior Program Officer for Clean Energy at the Barr Foundation, and Jay Campbell, Partner at Hart Research
In the fall of 2023, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on offshore wind procurement. The MOU allows project developers to submit bids to multiple states at once, which could attract larger projects and drive down energy costs. This past July, the Barr Foundation and Hart Research published Views…
Three Questions with Stephanie Watson, Floating Offshore Wind Manager at the Maine Governor’s Energy Office
The Gulf of Maine contains some of the nation’s best offshore wind resources, but its deep ocean and harsh conditions present formidable obstacles to offshore wind development. Maine has embraced the challenge, with Governor Janet Mills signing An Act Regarding the Procurement of Offshore Wind Energy Resources this past summer, authorizing the state to procure…
Three Questions with Chris Kearns, Acting Commissioner of the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources
In October 2023, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to create a pathway toward the nation’s first multi-state offshore wind power procurement solicitation. The MOU allows developers to submit bids to the three states at once, which could potentially reduce costs for ratepayers, diversify the region’s energy portfolio and expand…
Three Questions with Matt Shields, Researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
In May 2023, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a report titled A Supply Chain Road Map for Offshore Wind Energy in the United States. Combined with its sibling report from 2022, titled The Demand for a Domestic Offshore Wind Energy Supply Chain, the two reports looked at the pathways for developing a domestic…
Three Questions with Jonathan Kennedy: An Update on the New Jersey Wind Port
The New Jersey Wind Port, currently under construction, is slated to be the nation’s first purpose-built offshore wind marshalling and manufacturing port, an important milestone for offshore wind development in the US. The port broke ground in 2021, and its first phase is on track for completion in April 2024. Subsequent phases will be completed…
A Case for Regional Collaboration among States in the New Offshore Wind Economy
In 2022, US state governments increased their collective procurements of offshore wind power to over 8,100 MW. While these collective procurement targets have the potential to transform electricity generation in the US, states have so far come to these targets and approached offshore wind development more generally, on an individual basis. To fully realize the…
Three questions with the California Energy Commission
Clean Energy States Alliance Research Associate Sam Schacht spoke with three senior members of the California Energy Commission (CEC)—International Relations Senior Advisor Alana Sanchez, Chief of Staff for CEC Chair David Hochschild Katerina Robinson, and Director for Siting, Transmission, and Environmental Protection Division Elizabeth Huber—about how California has worked with international and sub-national partners to…
A conversation on building Maryland’s offshore wind workforce
In the fall of 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce Awarded $22.9 million to the Maryland Department of Labor from its Good Jobs Challenge grant program. The money is intended to catalyze the development of Maryland’s emerging offshore wind workforce and industry, including the existing Maryland Works for Wind (MWW) program. To learn more about…
Federal Support on Capacity Can Boost Regional Wind Goals
In December 2019, FERC, the federal regulatory body overseeing wholesale transmission and regulating regional transmission system/independent system operators, expanded the Minimum Offer Price Rule (MOPR), effectively prohibiting offshore wind and other state-supported resources from participating in capacity-market auctions. The rule made it difficult for offshore wind providers to participate in capacity market auctions. Now, to…