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The Biden administration greenlit the first large-scale offshore wind project this month in a move that could help jumpstart an industry that thus far has been stagnant in the United States.
It’s a small first step toward meeting
a goal President Joe Biden set in March for the U.S. to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030, but the country has a long way to go. Currently, the U.S. only has two small-scale pilot offshore wind projects in operation, one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other off the coast of Virginia, totaling about 42 megawatts of power.
2020 had been the strongest year for renewables deployment in the country to date.
The Clean Power Quarterly Market Report, released today by the American Clean Power Association (ACP), shows that US project developers installed 2500MW of wind, 1200MW of solar and 100MW of battery storage between January and March.
The figures also found that three times as much wind power was added to the US grid in the first quarter of 2021 than the equivalent period in 2019.
The top five states for first quarter additions include Texas (791 MW), Oklahoma (555 MW), California (519 MW), South Dakota (462 MW), and North Dakota (299 MW).
Earlier this week, federal regulators gave consent to the planned 800 MW Vineyard Wind project, the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the country.
Permission granted by Stem
UPDATE: May 18, 2021: FERC denied MISO s extension request May 17. The commission found that MISO has not shown good cause for granting its request.
Dive Brief:
Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) CEO John Bear has asked FERC to pay considerable attention to the operator s request for an extension in complying with an order to integrate storage on the marketplace.
MISO is committed to greater participation of electric storage resources (ESRs), but federal requirements to bring them into the marketplace could compromise with members carbon reduction goals, Bear wrote in comments filed May 10. That has placed MISO in an unenviable position of choosing a path between conflicting goals that could jeopardize our capability to operate our 15-state wholesale grid reliably, efficiently and securely.