WEF Talk 5: “Developing an offshore wind supply chain in the United States” 

ABSTRACT

The Biden Administration has set a target of installing 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030, a significant expansion from the 42 MW currently installed.  As the rest of the world also has ambitious offshore wind deployment targets over the next decade, the US will be competing with Europe and Asia to source components to build these projects.  Developing a domestic offshore wind supply chain offers an opportunity to streamline deployment in the US while also creating a significant number of local jobs and economic benefits; however, building such a supply chain from scratch faces serious difficulties based on uncertainty in the deployment pipeline, changing technologies, limited existing infrastructure, and competition between key stakeholders in the industry.  NREL is leading a study to develop a supply chain road map for full domestic content scenarios that will consider the impacts on cost, deployment, jobs, and economic benefits of sourcing components from a domestic supply chain relative to international manufacturers.  This presentation will describe the state of the offshore wind industry, highlight key challenges facing domestic manufacturing, and discuss the opportunity space for developing a local supply chain in the United States. 

BIO:

Matt Shields is a Senior Offshore Wind Analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.  He specializes in cost modeling, supply chain and economic analysis, and leads the offshore wind techno-economic analysis portfolio at NREL.  This role involves developing new open-source modeling tools and conducting analysis to provide insights into key technology trends and constraints facing the offshore wind industry.  Dr. Shields received his Ph.D in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Florida in 2014 and was a faculty member at Seattle University prior to joining NREL.