Economic Impact & Financing

Land-based and offshore wind are expected to be a cornerstone for achieving U.S. clean electricity generation objectives, including 100% clean electricity by 2035 and an 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind by 2030. Meeting these goals will require significant expansion of domestic supply chains and installation of unprecedented amounts of wind capacity. To meet this challenge, researchers compiled a report examining the U.S. land-based and offshore wind energy supply chain, including raw materials, processed materials, components, sub-components, and recycling.

The report “America’s Strategy to Secure the Supply Chain for a Robust Clean Energy Transition” lays out the challenges and opportunities faced by the United States in the energy supply chain as well as the federal government plans to address these challenges and opportunities. It is accompanied by several issue-specific deep dive assessments, including this one, in response to Executive Order 14017 “America’s Supply Chains,” which directs the Secretary of Energy to submit a report on supply chains for the energy sector industrial base. The Executive Order is helping the federal government to build more secure and diverse U.S. supply chains, including energy supply chains.

A petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 3310) of Thomas A. Golden, Jr., and Patricia A. Haddad relative to making appropriations for the investment in and expansion of the offshore wind industry. Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.

The Department of the Interior today announced the results of the nation’s highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in history, including oil and gas lease sales, with the New York Bight offshore wind sale. These results are a major milestone towards achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Today’s lease sale offered six lease areas totaling over 488,000 acres in the New York Bight for potential wind energy development and drew competitive winning bids from six companies totaling approximately $4.37 billion.

In May 2021, the Departments of the Interior and Commerce announced the approval of the construction and operation of the first large-scale, offshore wind project in the United States, located offshore Massachusetts. The 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind 1 Offshore Wind Energy Project will be located approximately 12 nautical miles offshore Martha's Vineyard and 12 nautical miles offshore Nantucket in the northern portion of Vineyard Wind’s lease area. 

On January 16, 2020, Deepwater Wind New England, LLC. submitted an application to BOEM to assign 13,700 acres of OCS-A 0486 to Deepwater Wind South Fork, LLC. BOEM approved the assignment on March 23, 2020. The lease area assigned to Deepwater Wind South Fork, LLC now carries the new lease number OCS-A 0517.

On January 27, 2021, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14008 (“Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” 2021), which established a target of achieving 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and net zero greenhouse gas emissions economy-wide by no later than 2050 (The White House 2021c). Achieving these goals is expected to require deploying several clean energy technologies at a rapidly increasing scale. A subsequent Executive Order 14017 on America’s Supply Chains directs the Secretary of Energy to submit a supply chain overview report for the Energy Sector Industrial Base. A cross-DOE team led by the Office of Policy was tasked with reviewing key technology supply chains and determining actionable policy steps to enable the United States to meet its domestic demand for these critical technologies within five years while also considering environmental justice and impacts on underserved communities(The White House 2021a).

The Wind Energy Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment finds that the U.S. wind supply chain is nascent for offshore wind and mature for land-based wind, but U.S. competitiveness is declining in key wind turbine components. Continued decarbonization of the U.S. grid and economy with domestically supplied wind technology will require innovation to increase U.S. manufacturing competitiveness; investment in logistics and infrastructure, such as offshore wind ports and vessels; and policies to provide a strong and stable demand signal to support accelerated investment in the wind supply chain.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released America’s first comprehensive plan to ensure security and increase our energy independence. The sweeping report, “America’s Strategy to Secure the Supply Chain for a Robust Clean Energy Transition,” lays out dozens of critical strategies to build a secure, resilient, and diverse domestic energy sector industrial base that will establish America’s role as a global leader in clean energy manufacturing and innovation. 

The Department of the Interior today announced the results of the nation’s highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in history, including oil and gas lease sales, with the New York Bight offshore wind sale. These results are a major milestone towards achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. Today’s lease sale offered six lease areas totaling over 488,000 acres in the New York Bight for potential wind energy development and drew competitive winning bids from six companies totaling approximately $4.37 billion.