U.S. Offshore Wind Capacity Could Reach 86 GW by 2050

Leaders of the U.S. wind energy industry said their companies and workers can deliver on a bold new vision for wind power to double in America over the next five years and ultimately become one of the country’s largest sources of electricity, with the savings to consumers reaching tens of billions of dollars a year.

Wind Vision: A New Era of Wind Power in the United States was released yesterday by the White House and the U.S. Department of Energy after two years of research and peer review.

The definitive new report updates and extends a 2008 Bush Administration report, “20% Wind Energy by 2030,” which galvanized the rapid growth of wind to the point that it now generates 4.5 percent of America’s electricity. Wind Vision describes a new scenario for wind to reach 10 percent by 2020, 20 percent by 2030, and 35 percent by 2050, and provides a road map for government and industry to get there.

Wind Vision anticipates that the cost of land-based wind energy can still be further reduced 33 percent by 2030. The report finds the industry has already exceeded the cost reductions and growth trajectory outlined in the 2008 report, because of technological improvements and smart, performance-based policies. Through 2013, the U.S. wind industry exceeded that report’s aggressive cost reduction projections by 32 percent and its wind deployment projections by 27 percent.

Like land-based wind, as offshore wind technology is adopted in the U.S., its costs will also come down. Wind Vision assumes 3 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity will be built offshore by 2020, 22 GW by 2030, and 86 GW by 2050.

“This report documents how wind energy already provides major economic and environmental benefits to America, including protecting consumers against energy price spikes, and making deep cuts in pollution and water use,” commented John Kostyack, Executive Director of the Wind Energy Foundation. “As wind becomes one of the country’s top sources of electricity, Wind Vision promises even bigger benefits for decades to come.”

Over 50 industry executives and professionals will serve as ambassadors to educate Americans and elected officials about those benefits, under a year-long joint campaign announced today by AWEA and the Wind Energy Foundation to disseminate the findings.

The Wind Vision scenario describes how consumers will benefit immediately from more stably priced energy. With more wind energy, electricity prices would be 20 percent less sensitive to fluctuations in the price of fossil fuels, the report finds. Consumers would see $280 billion in economy-wide savings from reduced natural gas prices alone.

Investing in more U.S. wind turbines would pay further economic dividends, such as by creating more jobs and causing further reductions in air pollution. The up-front investment to achieve these benefits will cost electric consumers only pennies a month in the early years, the report shows.

Consumers will see direct savings as wind technology continues to improve and fossil fuel energy sources become more expensive, with annual consumer savings reaching $14 billion a year by 2050, and cumulative savings on U.S. electric bills amounting to $149 billion by then. If fossil fuel prices increase more than expected, electric consumers would start to see direct savings even sooner.