Wind power generated more electricity than coal in the U.S. in March and April, a sign that the setbacks offshore wind faced last year have not halted the industry’s broader momentum.
Though the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts these standings will fluctuate, the energy generated by coal has steadily declined since 2008 while wind power has increased.
The U.S. has more than 74,500 wind turbines, and about 3,000 new turbines have been built every year since 2005. Wind power remains a relatively small part of broader U.S. energy production — 10.2% in 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration — behind natural gas (43.1%) and nuclear (18.6%), but makes up almost half of all renewable energy production.
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Developing more wind power has been touted as a major part of the multipronged renewable energy push meant to put the U.S. on track to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.
The same economic issues that people all over the world have felt, such as rising inflation rates and a recovering supply chain after the pandemic, have hindered the development of offshore wind, Kates-Garnick said.
Avangrid, a sustainable energy company that runs the largest operating offshore wind farm in the U.S., canceled two projects last year in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Pedro Azagra, the CEO of Avangrid, said the company exited contracts for those projects because the state of the economy made the price of development too high.
Ørsted expects the company and others across the industry to expand with growing bipartisan support for renewable energy and an increasing demand for electricity, Urbish said.
In addition to economic stress, offshore wind projects face both federal and state regulations because they have to get approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said Joshua Basseches, an assistant professor of environmental studies and public policy at Tulane University in Louisiana.
Saved 78% of original text.
