Copenhagen: The United States must accelerate project licenses if to meet the target 2030 Biden administration for offshore wind power, the main developer said on Thursday.
The United States, with only two small offshore wind facilities, has merchated European countries in developing renewable energy technology.
President Joe Biden’s administration has set goals to install 30 gigawatts (GW) offshore wind power capacity in US waters in 2030 – almost the number that already existed in the old European decades of Europe.
But it can take 10 years to plan and build a new project.
“To have 30 gw installed in 2030 it would mean that the licensing process needs to be accelerated,” Head of Commercial and Vice CEO CEO Orsted Martin Neubert told Reuters.
Neubert spoke a day after the New Jersey Regulator announced that Orsted Denmark and the consortium of the Royal Dutch Shell and EDF were awarded two offshore wind farm tenders in the northeastern state, the biggest award in US history.
Moving Biden towards wind power came after his predecessor, Donald Trump, threw the industry into doubt when he canceled the application of the first commercial scale windfield permit during his tenure.
“There is no doubt that the entire offshore wind industry in the US has suffered a moratorium that we have experienced over the past few years,” Neubert said and welcomed efforts by the Biden government to make up for mistakes.
“We see real actions in creating momentum to move forward on the side of the federal permit,” he added.
, A large number of new seabed rentals and large-scale builds from the grid are also needed to reach ambitious targets, said Neubert.