U.S. Offshore Wind Cost May Drop 55% as Builders Gain Experience
By Joe Ryan
(Bloomberg) — The price of constructing wind farms off the U.S. coast might decline as a lot as 55 % inside 13 years, letting builders provide clear energy at charges aggressive with market costs, in keeping with a examine launched Tuesday by the University of Delaware.
If builders decide to a sequence of huge tasks, putting in about 2,000 megawatts of capability between 2020 and 2030 off the Massachusetts coast, they may regularly drive down prices as they achieve expertise, set up transmission strains, improve infrastructure and make the most of more and more environment friendly parts, the examine discovered.
While offshore wind has thrived in Europe, the excessive prices of erecting generators at sea has sunk most U.S. tasks. Developers beforehand proposed wind farms off the East Coast with charges as excessive as 24 cents a kilowatt hour, greater than double the market charge. The University of Delaware discovered that they might reduce these prices to 12.8 cents a kilowatt-hour by 2026, and to 10.8 cents by 2029, when the trade might have put in as a lot as 2,000 megawatts.
The key to creating offshore wind economical “is making a firm commitment to scale so the market can do its work,” Willett Kempton, a professor within the University of Delaware’s School of Marine Science and an writer of the examine, stated in a press release.
The examine, funded by the college’s Wind Power Program, used information from offshore wind builders which can be potential websites alongside the East Coast.
The examine comes as Deepwater Wind LLC is constructing the primary wind farm within the U.S., off the coast of Rhode Island. It’s scheduled to start operations by the tip of the yr, and National Grid Plc has agreed to pay as a lot as 24.4 cents a kilowatts hour for the facility.
Massachusetts lawmakers are contemplating laws to encourage builders to construct further tasks within the Atlantic close to Martha’s Vineyard. Three builders — Deepwater, Dong Energy A/S and Offshore MW LLC — have leases from the federal authorities to construct within the space.
© 2016 Bloomberg L.P
