The US Energy Department has released a new report showing strong progress for the US offshore wind market—including the start of construction of the nation's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, one of 21 projects totalling 15,650MW in the planning and development pipeline.
Of these 21 US projects, 13 projects totalling nearly 6,000MW are in the more advanced stages of development, while 12 projects with more than 3,300MW planned have announced a commercial operation date by 2020. Deepwater Wind recently began construction of the Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island this spring. The 30MW project is expected to be operational by fall 2016. In addition to Rhode Island, offshore wind projects in eight other states are also in the advanced stages of development. The 2014–2015 U.S. Offshore Wind Technologies Market Report was prepared for the Energy Department by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
