Standardization of Turbine Design and Installation Vessels to Accelerate the Offshore Wind Industry in the United States

Offshore wind energy has gained attention as a promising renewable energy source with many benefits, including clean, sustainable, and scalable electricity production. Despite the vast potential for offshore wind production in the United States, the country lags in its development. The industry struggles with supply chain challenges related to the complex logistics around the design and construction of many component parts, installation and maintenance vessels, and shipyards that can accommodate the massive turbine components before installation. These challenges are complicated by the rapid increase in size of offshore wind turbines to achieve higher power generation, which are not easily handled by other parts of the supply chain. The US lacks access to wind turbine installation vessels (WTIVs), particularly those that can install very large turbines. To address these issues, we propose policy options to the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the Department of Interior and the US Department of Energy to spearhead standardization in this sector of the economy by exploring standardization of maximum turbine size, investment in WTIVs, or allowance of unrestricted or market-driven offshore wind farm development. These options have great potential to enable growth in the offshore wind energy sector in the US and achieve the federal government's goal of 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030.