Is US Offshore Wind Dead In The Water — Or Just Poised For The Next Big Gust?

"The Biden Administration wants to boost offshore wind. But other forces, including cost, political opposition and disinformation, have slowed adoption."

"In the early 2000s, a long-time Louisiana engineer and entrepreneur thought it would be natural for the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico to expand into offshore wind. The industry could use the same workforce, the same shipyards and possibly even the same platforms to generate renewable power.

With designs, data and offshore leases from Texas, Herman Schellstede and his team planned to build a 62-turbine wind farm off Galveston’s coast— one of the first such proposals in the United States and the first in the Gulf of Mexico.

The team approached banks and even Koch Industries seeking financing for the $300 million wind farm, he said. But financing nascent offshore wind was apparently too risky a proposition in the wake of the 2008 financial meltdown. The wind farm was eventually scuttled."

Pam Radtke reports for Floodlight May 28, 2024.

Source: Floodlight, 05/29/2024