Conclusion

The Biden Administration is pledging 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030. Yet, varying policy support and global supply chain challenges limits the industry’s growth ( Musial et al., 2021 ). To meet this goal, it is critical the U.S. prioritizes developing a domestic supply chain for OSW, investing in essential infrastructure for offshore wind activities, including ports and vessels. The Jones Act, which prohibits the transport of goods between U.S. ports on internationally-flagged ships, has presented major logistical challenges for OSW projects given the present lack of suitable domestic installation vessels. To kickstart cost-effective OSW development under current U.S. law, the domestic construction of such vessels using high-quality union labor is vital. Domesticating the supply chain will lead to 44,000 high-quality direct jobs and an additional 33,000 indirect jobs, injecting $1,600-$6,200 million per year to the U.S. GDP ( Shields et al., 2022 ).

Turning to the UK, a global leader in offshore wind, the U.S. can learn key lessons including how to avoid siting issues, increase and strengthen a diverse and highly trained workforce, and incentivize technological innovation to harness the 2,787 GW of floating turbine generation potential in deep waters (ESMAP , 2022 ). Additionally, the U.S. can learn from the UK’s imperfect track record on maximizing local content throughout its developmental stages, by prioritizing rapid domestic supply chain growth for more sustainable LCOE reduction in the long term. As the U.S. offshore wind economy is in its infancy, the U.S. can ensure a diverse workforce through targeted hiring, diversity requirements, and establishing DEI tracking measures. Furthermore, project developers have signaled proximity to functional ports is one of the most highly-sought after characteristics for companies as they determine location; thus, prioritizing port investment and development to increase their size and usability will be key to accelerating a local supply chain and will ultimately lead to positive returns on investments (Nightingale, 2021; Marsico, 2021).

The three policy suggestions outlined in this report – authorizing the Defense Production Act (DPA) to support a domestic supply chain, setting Regional Content Requirements (RCRs) and applying the Build America, Buy America standards to all OSW projects, as well as investing in the offshore wind workforce through enhanced partnerships amongst the industry, labor, academic, and government groups– allow for the domestic supply chain for offshore wind in the U.S. to be rapidly scaled-up while meeting the 30 GW target and generating a direct pipeline to high quality, union jobs. Not only will this effectively slash the U.S.’ emission generation, combating climate change, but also advance a just energy transition, energy independence, and strength in the economy.

When looking at trends in electrification, the rapidly decreasing costs of offshore wind energy, and given the U.S. has a total of 5,259 GW offshore wind potential, the U.S. should not only meet the 30 GW but surpass it ( Musial et al., 2021 ). The U.S. can assume a leading role in offshore wind generation by investing in a domestic supply chain that promises high-quality, union jobs.