It’s Tuesday, March 30, and President Biden is spinning up some offshore wind.
The Biden administration announced plans on Monday to set aside a swath of ocean off the East Coast of the United State for the development of offshore wind and to more than double the country’s planned offshore wind power capacity by 2030.
According to a fact sheet released by the White House, the administration plans to cordon off a shallow stretch of the Atlantic Ocean known as the New York Bight, off the coast of Long Island and New Jersey, as a “priority Wind Energy Area.” If all goes according to plan, the area should be leased to wind developers by late 2021 or early 2022.
The White House is also aiming to add 30 gigawatts of offshore wind to the U.S. electricity grid by 2030, generating enough energy to power around 10 million homes and providing around 44,000 jobs. At the moment, the country only has one operational offshore wind farm, which is off the coast of Rhode Island and produces around 30 megawatts of electricity.* (In contrast, the U.S. currently generates around 111 gigawatts of electricity from turbines located on land.)
“This offshore wind goal is proof of our commitment to using American ingenuity and might to invest in our nation, advance our own energy security, and combat the climate crisis,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement.
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*Correction: This story originally misstated the wind capacity of the nation’s one existing offshore wind farm.
