Wind

Industry group touts $25bn US offshore wind investment and jobs boom as Trump looms

Oceantic Network highlights manufacturing, ports and shipbuilding, but industry still struggles with opposition

US-built offshore substation at Orsted's South Fork Wind, the nation's first commercial-scale operational array.
US-built offshore substation at Orsted's South Fork Wind, the nation's first commercial-scale operational array.Photo: Recharge
US Offshore Wind Editor, Recharge

US Offshore wind advocacy group Oceantic Network released a report today highlighting an investment boom in sector-related manufacturing, ports and vessel construction as industry critic as President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration looms next week.

Offshore wind development and investment surged under outgoing President Joe Biden’s 30GW by 2030 target, with nearly 20GW of project capacity approved by federal regulators and 5GW either completed or in construction.
Coupled with investment tax credits included in landmark climate legislation, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), this capacity has sparked some $25bn in supply chain investments sprawling across 40 states, most of them Republican-leaning, Oceantic reported in its publication, Offshore Energy at Work.

These include $1.8bn in vessel orders across 21 U.S. shipyards, as well as $5bn to transform ports into marshaling and assembly hubs and $4bn in new steelmaking.

“The American offshore wind energy industry is creating thousands of jobs across a national supply chain, driving billions in supply chain investments, and delivering reliable, homegrown energy to meet our country’s growing power needs while ensuring energy security for decades,” said Liz Burdock, Oceantic CEO.

Offshore wind investment and job creation has spread far from the coasts, including rural western New York State, where steel fabricator Ljungstrom manufactures advanced components for multiple arrays.

“The community really has a buzz around this wind work,” said Ljungstrom weld shop supervisor Larry Rogers said in a video embedded in the report. “It’s really helped the economy for this area.”

This progress could be threatened by Trump, who famously declared that he would put a stop to offshore wind activities “on day one” of his term.

Trump moratorium

This week, congressman Jeff Van Drew representing south New Jersey’s 2nd district claimed to have written up an executive order on Trump's behalf putting a six-month moratorium on sector activities.

The aim is to “let the Interior Department, along with other departments, review the environmental issues, review the ratepayer issues, review the national-security issues, review the fishing issues,” Van Drew told local media.

Van Drew is a staunch offshore wind opponent despite the massive investment pumped into his district by both the state and private sector.

The state-funded New Jersey Wind Port in Salem County, within the 2nd district, completed its $1bn phase 1 in 2023, while Atlantic County is the hub for Shell-EDF’s 1.5GW Atlantic Shores.

Paulsboro, just outside Van Drew’s district in Camden County, meanwhile, is the site of German steelmaker EEW’s multimillion-dollar monopile manufacturing facility.

Orsted’s moved to scrap its 1.1GW Ocean Wind 1 project due to inflationary headwinds, supply chain turmoil, and not least, local opposition, however, meant the loss of the port’s first customer.

EEW’s plant was left holding dozens of massive monopiles intended for the project that had been manufactured in Germany and shipped to the site for finishing and had to offload them to a state-owned recycler for disposal.

The monopile maker is reportedly back on track with Atlantic Shores as well as TotalEnergies/Corio’s 1.3GW Attentive Energy 2 and Invenergy’s 2.4GW Leading Light signing on as customers, but there’s still no smooth road ahead.
Atlantic Shores’ offtake contract is under renegotiation with the state, and Leading Light has asked for a second stay in contract obligations as it searches for a cost-effective turbine maker.

This turmoil has delayed the real economic benefits from being felt to district residents, said Matt Krayton, CEO of New Jersey-based political consultancy Publitics.

“In a place like South Jersey, the bulk of those jobs have not hit the streets,” he told Recharge.

With Van Drew up for reelection in midterm congressional races next year, he is “biased towards political realities on the ground today versus future impacts of these investments,” Krayton said.

(Copyright)

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Published 15 January 2025, 21:06Updated 20 January 2025, 10:36
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