Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Offshore Wind Energy

The latest blog in our "Top Things You Didn't Know About Energy" series is brought to you by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

10. Offshore Wind Resources Are Abundant: Offshore wind has the potential to deliver large amounts of clean, renewable energy to fulfill the electrical needs of cities along U.S. coastlines. Under conditions that foster offshore wind utilization, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the technical resource potential for U.S. offshore wind is more than 4,200 gigawatts of capacity, or 13,500 terawatt-hours per year of generation-three times the amount of electricity consumed in the United States annually.

9. Offshore Wind Turbines Can Be Extremely Tall: In order to capture the abundant wind resources available offshore, offshore turbines can be scaled up to one-and-a-half times the height of the Washington Monument, with blades the length of a football field. Larger turbines produce greater amounts of energy, meaning that fewer turbines are needed to generate the same amount of electricity, leading to lower costs.

8. The United States is Building an Offshore Wind Supply Chain: Deploying 30 GW of offshore wind will require over 2,000 wind turbines and foundations, 6,800 miles of cable, and dozens of specialized vessels. In the first two years following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the domestic offshore wind industry invested more than $6.8 billion in offshore wind manufacturing facilities and ports, as well as 25 vessels and a transmission substation.

7. U.S. Offshore Wind Industry is Ready for Liftoff:The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Offshore Wind Report: released in 2024 found that the U.S. offshore wind sector is adapting to challenges and poised for continued progress. The industry stands to create thousands of new jobs and expand access to clean energy for millions of Americans, with a path to deploying over 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2050.

6. Offshore Wind Farms Use Undersea Cables to Transmit Electricity to the Grid: Electricity produced by offshore wind turbines travels back to land through a series of cable systems that are buried in the sea floor. This electricity is channeled through coastal load centers that prioritize where the electricity should go and distributes it into the electrical grid to power our homes, schools, and businesses. Learn more about how DOE is supporting offshore wind transmission on the Grid Deployment Office's web page.

5. The Majority of U.S. Offshore Wind Resources Are in Deep Waters: The bulk of the nation's offshore wind resources, about two-thirds, are in areas where the water is so deep that conventional foundations-large steel piles or lattice structures fixed to the seabed-are not practical. U.S. offshore wind projects are developing a variety of different foundations suited to unique conditions at each site.

4. Offshore Wind Turbines Can Float: A number of companies are developing innovative floating offshore wind platforms for use in deep waters. Four kinds of floating platforms are spar-buoy, tension leg platform, semi-submersible, and barge. About 80% of projects plan to use semi-submersible platforms. In 2022, DOE launched an Energy Earthshot™ to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind in deep waters, far from shore, 75% by 2035.

3. Offshore Wind is Right on Time: In many areas where offshore wind projects are planned, offshore wind speeds are highest during the afternoon and evening, when consumer demand is at its peak. Most land-based wind resources are stronger at night when electricity demands are lower.

2. Offshore Wind Resources are Near Most Americans: Nearly 80 percent of the nation's electricity demand occurs in the coastal and Great Lakes states-where most Americans live. Offshore wind resources are conveniently located near these coastal populations; for example, in the Northeastern United States where some of the nation's first offshore wind projects are planned. Wind turbines off coastlines use shorter transmission lines to connect to the power grid than many common sources of electricity.

1. Offshore Wind is Here in America: The 132-MW South Fork Wind Farm, which began operating in December 2023 and was fully commissioned in March 2024, became the first operational commercial-scale wind farm in the United States. The 12-turbine project is estimated to provide clean energy to over 70,000 homes in the New York area. South Fork is the third operational offshore wind farm in America, preceded by the 12-MW Coastal Virginia Offshore pilot project in 2020, and the 30-MW Block Island Wind Farm in 2016. Additionally, there are about 60 offshore wind projects in various stages of development across the United States.

Learn More

• Check out the Offshore Wind Market Report: 2024 Edition to learn about the offshore wind industry.
• Explore more wind facts in our Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Wind.
• Visit energy.gov/windreport to learn about the status of the wind industry.

Liz Hartman is the Communications Lead for DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office.