Offshore Wind Developers Push Port Spending

A group of offshore wind developers is sounding the alarm over what they say is underinvestment in ports that service wind farms. They say they can’t meet the Biden administration’s goals for wind power without a significant shot of cash for ports supporting offshore wind.

“Port infrastructure is one of the most significant bottlenecks impeding the development of offshore wind,” claims The Business Network for Offshore Wind Development in a report released September 25. The report is titled, “Building A National Network of Offshore Wind Ports: A $36B Plan for Domestic Energy Infrastructure.”

In 2021, the Biden administration set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind electricity generation by 2030—enough to power more than 10 million American homes with clean energy. The current installed offshore wind capacity is 16 gigawatts. “Unfortunately, most offshore wind port projects under development are now facing material financing gaps due to construction cost escalation, which has increased between 30 percent and 40 percent over the last three years, and the commercial uncertainties associated with supporting a brand-new industry,” the report warns.

The report calls for a total of 99 to 119 port development sites across the East Coast, West Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. About 35 offshore wind port sites are already in development or have recently reached commercial operations, most of them in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.

The report claims “the nation is currently facing an offshore port infrastructure gap of 64 to 84 projects.” It estimates the total cost to address the nation’s offshore wind port infrastructure gap, assuming 2023 construction prices and no financing costs, to be between $22.5 billion and $27.2 billion, plus another $7.2 billion for inflation and to organize the financing over a six-year time window.

The report suggests setting aside a dedicated portion of Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) funding and increasing typical award sizes for offshore wind port projects; making offshore wind development a policy priority of the Energy Department; broadening the authority of the DOE’s loan program to increase offshore wind financing; and creating “dedicated offshore wind port funding programs at the local, state and federal levels that can provide significantly increased levels of grant funding.”

The full report is available here.