The U.S. offshore wind industry continued its forward progress despite severe financial challenges in the third quarter of 2023, according to the Business Network for Offshore Wind’s U.S. Offshore Wind Quarterly Market Report.
The report's highlights included construction progress at the nation’s first two commercial-scale projects, Vineyard Wind and South Fork Wind. The two projects are close to delivering their first power to the grid. Other projects approved for construction has tripled in size with more projects just weeks away from achieving final approval themselves, the Business Network said in its report. The report documents key investments announced over the past three months, growth in state demand for offshore wind, and notable policy advancements that drove the U.S. market forward between July and September 2023.
The third quarter also saw California move closer to offshore wind deployment with new authority to buy power generation as well as New England states strengthen their collaboration.
Despite this progress, significant cost increases due to global economic turmoil resulted in contract terminations, delaying project deployment.
"The U.S. offshore wind market felt its growing pains over the past quarter, taking two steps forward and two steps back," Liz Burdock, founder and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind, said in a statement. "We celebrated our first two utility-scale projects on the verge of delivering power to the grid, a monumental milestone a decade in the making—but simultaneously suffer project delays and continued supply chain challenges.
"Building up a new industry was always going to include challenges and setbacks," Burdock continued. "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.”
