National Offshore Wind Consortium Unveils Supply Chain Report to Achieve U.S. Goal of 30 Gigawatts by 2030

The National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium on Jan.23 published a report highlighting how the U.S. can create a robust and reasonable domestic supply chain necessary for the U.S. to achieve the national offshore wind target of 30 gigawatts by 2030.

The report highlights the need for domestic supply chain, local workforce and energy and environmental justice as part of a new offshore wind industry and delves into detail on how an entirely domestic wind energy supply chain could develop. Moreover, it analyses the major obstacles that could inhibit or slow down supply chain development and outlines potential solutions that could assist in overcoming these challenges.

The report evaluates the key factors that need to be studied to create resilient, viable, and equitable manufacturing resources and describes scenarios for a domestic supply chain. Further, the report includes a scenario that estimates the number of necessary major component manufacturing amenities, ports and vessels that would need to be established by 2030 to sustain an yearly deployment of 4 to 6 gigawatts. Under this scenario, the deployment rate would put the U.S. on a roadmap to install 110 gigawatts by 2050 and the analysis would help identify the level of investment, expansion time, and workforce growth that could be necessitated to develop a domestic supply chain.

The results of the scenario testing are expected to provide vital information and knowledge to federal and state governments and economic development agencies so that they can and facilitate supply chain planning and decision making. This project is a partnership between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Business Network for Offshore Wind, DNV, the Maryland Energy Administration, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

The actions highlighted in the report have  been separated into short-, medium- and long term time frames, in order for the agencies involved to operate in an efficient manner. The full project synopsis is expected to be released by the consortium in late winter this year.