Clean energy gets a windfall after a record-breaking auction for US offshore wind farms

It’s not just hot air… Energy giants are finally investing in US offshore wind farms. Last year, wind produced a record 9% of domestic energy, but virtually all that power was generated inland on huge farms in Texas, Oklahoma, and Iowa. Now the global energy sector is looking offshore and starting to see a path to profits in those huge coastal turbines:

• The news: The rights to develop wind farms off the coast of New York and New Jersey sold for a record $4.37B this week, to joint ventures involving companies like Shell (Dutch), RWE (German), and National Grid (UK).
• The goal: Biden wants offshore wind to power 10M homes by 2030. US wind farms are already on track to exceed that, but they’re unlikely to be operational by the deadline.

The US has some wind in its sails… But still lags behind the EU and China in offshore wind production. Today the US has just two operational offshore wind farms, with only a handful of working turbines. Europe and China are dominating, accounting for nearly all offshore wind-generating capacity. Part of the reason for the lag is red tape: the US permitting process for offshore wind projects can take years because it often involves several states and overlapping regulators.