b'DECEMBER 18, 2023JANUARY 21, 2024US WIND POWER 15(SOLUTIONcontinuedthe industry to move forwardlift them, the ships to moveU.S. awards 6 thoffshore from page 14) as we build our own ships,them, and the ports and inland some of the time thats beenhe said. infrastructurethathasto lost, he said. Were going toi nnoVaTion To handle themhas to increasewind projecteventuallybuildthe30GWtosupportthem,hesaid. we need to build, maybe noto bsolEscEncE TheresacascadethroughBy Gary Burrow, AJOTin2030,maybeacoupleofAn important aspect thatthe supply chain, thats caus-years later. has hampered the wind energying significant consternationsThe U.S. Department of the700,000 homes each year. The Goingforward,Daghersupply chainsregardless offor the industry. Interior on Nov. 21 approvedprojectswouldsupportover said bids on power purchasefixed-bottom or floatinghasWiththegrowingsizestheEmpireWindoffshore830 jobs each year during the agreements are going to allowbeentheseeminglyconstantcomesquestionsofquality,windprojectthesixthconstruction phase and about for some inflationary clausesspiral of increasing turbine sizes. and the inability to retool theapprovalofacommercial- 300 jobs annually during the so we dont fall back into theWhen the earlier 1.5 MWsupplychaintodrivecostsscaleoffshorewindenergyoperations phase.same trap that we fell before. turbinesbecamethework- and efficiencies. project under President BidenBOEMhasheldfour horse of the land-based indus- There have been calls foradministration. offshorewindleaseauc-M arshallp lan Forp orTs try, industrializing the processthe OEMs, or original equip- EmpireWindUSLLCtions, raising almost $5.5 bil-Another obstacle to float- drove down costs, and madementmanufacturers,tohitproposes to develop two off- lion in high bids, including a ing wind efforts is lack of portthe industry competitive withthepausebuttononturbineshorewindfacilities,knownrecord-breaking sale offshore infrastructure to handle movingfossil-based energy. sizes so that we can indus- as Empire Wind 1 and EmpireNewYorkandNewJersey cargo, and to support the build- Thereareturbinesrighttrialize what we have today,Wind2.Theleaseareaisandthefirst-eversalesoff-ing of VolturnUS hulls for thenow in the 15-megawatt range,Dagher said. located south of Long Island,shore the Pacific and Gulf of floating wind turbines. and there are designs for tur- N.Y., and east of Long Branch,Mexicocoasts.BOEMhas Itsabsolutelyneces- bines that are much bigger than2024andb Eyond N.J.OwnedbyEquinorandalso advanced the process to sary that we make significantthat,18to20andevent20,Meanwhile, in the back- BP, the project would have upexplore additional opportuni-investments in port facilities24 and 25 MW that are beingground looms the U.S. presi- to 147 wind turbines with totalties for offshore wind energy in the United States for thislooked at, Dagher said. dential elections in Novembercapacityof2.08gigawatts.developmentintheU.S., industrytohappen,saidWhentheseturbines2024,andwindenergyandThe Bureau of Ocean Energyincluding in the Gulf of Maine Dagher,callingforaMar- grewbigger,thentheentire(SOLUTIONcontinued onManagement,BOEM,esti- and offshore Oregon and the shall Plan for ports. supply chainthe cranes topage 16) mates could power more thanU.S. Central Atlantic coast.We have not been invest-ing enough at the federal level inourportinfrastructure,so thereneedstobesignificant intention to making some very targetedportinvestmentsto grow this industry.Beyondnecessaryfor advancing needed infrastruc-ture to support floating wind, theeffortwillalsocreate thousands of jobs, or tens of thousands of jobs across the country, he continued.We need to invest in ports and the East and West coastsCLOSERand other places as well, that are capable of deploying hulls atoneperweek,hesaid. Weretalkingabouthulls like a big ship.J onEsa cTFloating wind also requires thefocusoftheU.S.ship- ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER IN WASHINGTON STATEyards, as vessels solely call- FASTERing U.S. ports must be U.S. madeandU.S.crewed,to complywiththecabotage program under the Jones Act. (Formoreinformationsee Jones Act story on page 2)We are starting to build ships in the U.S. again but is it going to be fast enough andDIRECT CONNECTIONS TO MAINLINE RAIL & INTERSTATE HIGHWAYSgoodenoughtosolvetheSMARTERlagging projects. Dagher said. Its slowing down our abil-ity to do the work we need to do and causing cancellation of some U.S. projects.Onesolutionwouldbe to relax the Jones Act for a specificperiodoftime,to allowforeign-flagvesselsSTORAGE OPTIONS & FOREIGN TRADE ZONE SPACEto call U.S. ports to advanceBETTERfloating wind projects, while allowingshipyardstoramp up to handle the vessels.By hitting the pause button onthecabotagelawperiod, youcanactuallyhavesome exception to the Jones Act to allow us to build our ships and ourfleetsready,allowstheON-DOCK RAIL & DUAL-SERVED BY BNSF & UPindustry to move forward, yet at the same time, allows us to build our fleet after that.You can keep the Jones Act, but at least provide a fewCONTACT US AT [email protected] | PORTOFLONGVIEW.COMyearsofexceptionoverthe next five years or so to allow'