The Network's report, Building a National Network of Offshore Wind Ports: A $36B Plan for Domestic Clean Energy Infrastructure highlights the urgent need for both public and private investment in the port infrastructure projects needed to meet the U.S.'s offshore wind power generation goals. Authored by Brian Sabina, CEO of Clean Energy Terminals and the Network's Ports Working Group, the report lays out a $36 billion plan for developing domestic port infrastructure to help the U.S. reach its offshore wind deployment goals of 30 GW by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050. It offers practical cost and timing requirements for needed projects to ensure ports are ready to meet current and future demand. The report also outlines nine approaches state and federal policymakers could take to encourage private investment, either by subsidizing portions of the infrastructure costs or by de-risking projects to drive confidence and cost-efficiency.
While development of the U.S. offshore wind industry has accelerated rapidly in the past two years, the industry's long-term ability to scale and meet demand faces key bottlenecks and hurdles. That includes the U.S. port infrastructure system, which is currently unable to support projected offshore wind component manufacturing and project deployment. Already, more than $2.5 billion has been invested in U.S. ports, but unleashing the full potential of the industry requires a new understanding of long-term port requirements needs and development timelines to enable sustainable offshore wind growth that will create thousands of manufacturing, logistics, and operations jobs.
The Report's key findings include:
- Port infrastructure is one of the most significant bottlenecks impeding the advancement of the United States offshore wind industry.
- The U.S. needs approximately 110 port development sites across the East Coast, West Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico to support the full buildout of the industry (35 are already in development.)
- Without additional government funding and policy supports that incentivize private investment into U.S. offshore wind port infrastructure, port capacity will continue to be a major offshore wind deployment constraint across the country.
- The total cost to address the nation's offshore wind port infrastructure gap is estimated to be $36 billion over the next decade when realistically accounting for construction cost inflation.
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