Is Offshore Wind *Finally* Coming to America?
The Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2021
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The lack of progress on offshore wind in America is one of the most baffling and frustrating stories in energy.
The technology and resource availability are tremendous. Europe has de-risked the technology and proven it can be deployed at scale, and at low cost, with minimal disruption. U.S. states are setting big targets. And at a national-scale, people want it.
And yet, we have not been able to get any meaningful amounts of offshore wind capacity in the water.
That may be about to change. In late March, the Biden team said it plans to accelerate offshore wind development -- with a goal of getting 30 gigawatts of projects finished by 2030, and 110 gigawatts by 2050.
By comparison, we have 30 megawatts in the water now. And Europe currently has 25 gigawatts operational.
So what does the government need to do to finally make this industry a reality?
Energy futurist Ramez Naam is our guest co-host this week.
We’ll also talk about Biden’s first 100 days in office. He marked the occasion with a speech to Congress that emphasized his “blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.” H e’s drawing a very clear connection between taking action on climate change and building tons of jobs.
So what has Biden accomplished so far that is meaningful? What is rhetorical and what is creating a clear pathway to real outcomes?
Finally, we’ll look at why the UN is shifting its focus to methane emissions.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Energy Gang is brought to you by Aurora Solar. If you could ask 20 experts in the solar |
| 0:04.3 | industry, one question, what would it be? Well, this June you'll have the opportunity to do |
| 0:08.5 | just that. Join over 4,000 solar professionals on June 8th and 9th for Aurora Solar's second |
| 0:13.7 | annual virtual summit, here from and interact with industry leaders, policymakers, sales experts, |
| 0:18.7 | and more. Get your questions ready and save your spot at Empower. AuroraSolar.com, |
| 0:23.8 | slash Energy Gang, or just go to the show notes and click that link. |
| 0:30.3 | This is the Energy Gang, weekly debates and discussions about the fast-changing world of energy, |
| 0:34.8 | I'm Stephen Lacey. It's been 20 years since America's first offshore wind farm was proposed. |
| 0:44.8 | After a bruising fight, it never got in the water, and the offshore boom never came. |
| 0:49.9 | But now the US government is vowing to expand the industry by a thousand fold within a decade. |
| 0:54.9 | Will it really happen this time? Plus, we judge Biden's first 100 days and the United Nations |
| 0:59.8 | judges natural gas. Katherine Hamilton is my co-host. Hi, Katherine, how are you? |
| 1:08.2 | I'm great. Remember last week I talked about how I could rip off my mask when I was running? |
| 1:14.1 | Well, this week we're going to a Washington Nationals baseball game. So things are getting |
| 1:19.5 | back. Masked or unmasked? Oh, I'm sure we have to wear masks. I don't care. That's fine. |
| 1:24.2 | It's a baseball game. Do you wear fancy masks with logos on them and designs, |
| 1:29.1 | or are you just a straightforward mask person? I have some attractive, flowered masks that have |
| 1:35.9 | filters in them that I bought, but then I also made a bunch of ones that were kind of the |
| 1:39.8 | lightweight kind that I could run in. So they're all, they're reversible with really cute fabrics. |
| 1:45.3 | Katherine's the chair and co-founder of 38 North Solutions. Remaz, what about you? Are you like a |
| 1:50.0 | fancy mask wear or a medical mask wearer? I spent most of 2020 and still today with a mask that says |
| 1:56.4 | vote. My husband has that mask. It's a great mask. I love that mask and three colors. So that's my |
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