Block Island offshore wind farm P6290638m

Offshore wind power Offshore wind power or offshore wind energy is the generation of electricity through wind farms in bodies of water, usually at sea. There are higher wind speeds offshore than on land, so offshore farms generate more electricity per amount of c ...

is in the early stages of development in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. In 2016, the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States ...

estimated that the country has a gross resource potential of 10,800GW of offshore wind capacity, with a "technical" resource potential of 2,058GW. Offshore wind projects are under development in wind-rich areas of the East Coast, Great Lakes, and Pacific coast. The first commercial offshore wind farm,

Block Island Wind Farm Block Island Wind Farm was the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States, located from Block Island, Rhode Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The five-turbine, 30 MW project was developed by Deepwater Wind, now Ørsted US Offshor ...

, began operation in 2016. As of 2017, about 30 projects totalling 24 gigawatts (GW) of potential installed capacity were being planned. In 2021 the Biden Administration announced a target of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030; the US currently has 0.042 GW of offshore wind power.

Federal regulation and incentives

The construction of an offshore wind farm involves a three-phase permitting process. First, the proponents must lease the seafloor from its owner — typically this will be Outer Continental Shelf, the federal seafloor which is leased by the

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, established in 2010 by Secretarial Order. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) states: "...the outer Continental Shelf is a v ...

(BOEM) under the

Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act {{Short pages monitor