Biden Administration Approves US Wind’s 2–Gigawatt Wind Project Offshore Maryland

The U.S. Interior Department on Sep. 5 announced its approval of US Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which has the potential to generate 2 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy for the Delmarva Peninsula and supply more than 718,000 homes. This marks the tenth commercial-scale offshore wind project approved under the Biden administration. With this, the department has now approved more than 15 GW of offshore wind energy capacity.

The project consists of three planned phases, which consist of the planned installation of up to 114 wind turbine generators, a meteorological tower, up to four offshore export cable corridors, and four offshore substation platforms. Two phases – MarWin and Momentum Wind – have secured offshore renewable energy certificates from Maryland. The lease area is about 8.7 nautical miles offshore Maryland and 9 nautical miles off Delaware at the project’s closest points to shore.

Five offshore wind lease auctions have been held including a lease sale off the Pacific Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. The department recently announced a schedule to hold up to 12 additional lease sales through 2028. The Biden administration has set a goal of deploying 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030 and 15 GW of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035.

Fulfilling the offshore wind energy capacity goal is projected to generate over $12 billion per year in capital investment in projects along U.S. coasts, provide enough electricity to fulfil the demand of over 10 million U.S. households yearly, and avert 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The U.S. offshore wind industry continues to make progress, with California planning to procure 7.6 GW of capacity by 2037. The industry also faces a number of hurdles, including the Vineyard Wind Project off Massachusetts is under investigation due to a turbine blade failure and a Gulf of Mexico lease auction has been cancelled due to a lack of interest.