Biden-Harris Administration Hits Offshore Wind Milestone, Continues to Advance Clean Energy Opportunities
At the beginning of this Administration, there were no approved commercial-scale offshore wind projects in federal waters in the United States. Recognizing the urgency of catalyzing this industry to generate clean energy and combat climate change, President Biden set an ambitious goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the United States by 2030, while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use. Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing the 10th approval of a commercial-scale offshore wind project. With this approval, the nation has now approved more than 15 gigawatts of offshore wind projects – enough to power 5.25 million homes, and equivalent to half of the capacity needed to achieve the 30 gigawatt goal.
US Wind’s project offshore Maryland – approved today by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) – will provide up to 2,200 megawatts of clean, reliable renewable energy for the Delmarva Peninsula and power up to 770,000 homes. The development and construction phases of the project are estimated to support up to an estimated 2,679 jobs annually over seven years.
Overall, successfully deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind will help power 10 million homes with clean energy, support 77,000 jobs, avoid 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind projects.
Today’s announcement builds on significant progress that the Biden-Harris Administration has made to accelerate project reviews while protecting communities and our environment. Recent data demonstrates that the Biden-Harris Administration is delivering more projects, more quickly than the previous Administration.
Today’s milestones build on the Administration’s progress to grow our nation’s offshore wind industry, including:
Advancing Offshore Wind off Every Coast
Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department of the Interior has held five offshore wind lease auctions providing more than 1.3 million new acres for development – including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and New Jersey that generated more than $4 billion in winning bids. The Department of the Interior also held first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf Coasts; held the first sale in the Central Atlantic region in a decade; and announced the first-ever sales offshore Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine. Earlier this year, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a new five-year offshore wind leasing schedule that aims to hold up to 12 potential offshore wind sales through 2028, including potential first-ever sales in HawaiˋI and a U.S. Territory. Because of the Administration’s progress on permitting the nation’s first offshore wind projects and leasing new areas, the total U.S. offshore wind project pipeline now exceeds 80 gigawatts, enough to power more than 26 million homes if fully developed.