The report describes how the United States could develop a fully domestic offshore wind energy supply chain. It discusses barriers that could prevent or delay supply chain expansion and offers potential solutions that could help overcome these challenges.
It also highlights major considerations for developing resilient, sustainable, and equitable manufacturing capabilities and estimates the number of required major component manufacturing facilities, ports, and vessels that would need to be developed by 2030 under a domestic supply chain scenario that supports an annual deployment of 4-6 GW per year. This scenario also guides discussion regarding the investment, development time, and workforce growth that could be required to develop a domestic offshore wind supply chain.
In addition, the report provides a host of proposed actions policymakers, industry and supply chain companies can take to build out a sustainable domestic supply chain. The full report Supply Chain Road Map for Offshore Wind Energy can be found online.
“A manufacturing supply chain is already emerging in more than a dozen locations up and down the US coast in support of the offshore wind industry, which will lead to thousands of well-paying jobs” said Ross Gould, vice president for Supply Chain Development and Research at the Business Network for Offshore Wind. “To meet our ambitious clean energy national goals, American manufacturers must play a larger role to accelerate our transition. This road map lays out the challenges and collaborative actions needed to bring more domestic companies into the supply chain and the opportunity those businesses bring to building out the US offshore wind industry.”
This project is a partnership between the Business Network for Offshore Wind, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), DNV, the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA), the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and the US Department of Energy (DOE).
“The opportunity to create a resilient and equitable domestic supply chain is one of the most exciting aspects of our offshore wind goals” added Matt Shields, Senior Offshore Wind Analyst at NREL. “This supply chain would increase our chances of meeting the 30 GW by 2030 target, create a huge number of jobs and economic benefits, and most importantly, position the sector for sustainable growth beyond 2030. This report identifies critical actions that we need to take as an industry to develop the supply chain quickly, but also strategically and equitably.”
The full project summary will be released by NOWRDC in late winter of 2023.
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