Page 20: of Marine News Magazine (February 2024)

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Column

Washington Watch

Will 2024 Settle the Turbulence of US Offshore Wind?

By Jeff R. Vogel, Shareholder, Cozen O’Connor’s Transportation & Trade Group

There is no denying that “commercial conditions driven by in? ation, interest that 2023 was a challenging year for the U.S. offshore wind rates and supply chain disruptions” ultimately “prevented market. Citing macroeconomic factors including high in- Empire Wind 2’s existing OREC agreement from being ? ation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks, viable.” Fortunately, Empire Wind 1 remains in develop-

Ørsted announced on October 31 that they were ceasing ment, albeit at a much smaller scale with an installed ca- the development of the Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind pacity of only 816 megawatts (MW)as compared to Em- 2 projects, which were scheduled for construction off the pire Wind 2’s potential generative capacity of 1,260 MW.

coast of New Jersey. Unfortunately, the troubling news has The cancellation of these projects and agreements by continued into the new year, with Equinor and BP an- foreign developers, of course, has a cascading impact on nouncing on January 3 that they had reached terms with the U.S. maritime industry and the American workforce. the New York State Energy Research and Development For example, concurrent with the termination of the Em-

Authority (NYSERDA) to terminate the Offshore Wind pire Wind 2 OREC Agreement, it was announced in early

Renewable Energy Certi? cate (OREC) Agreement for January that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation’s the Empire Wind 2 project. Like Ørsted, Equinor stated (GLDD) rock installation contract for the Empire Wind

Avangrid 20 | MN February 2024