At a critical moment, the coronavirus threatens to bring offshore wind to a halt

(Inside Climate News, 26 Mar 2020) The wind farms, in development off several East Coast states, are an essential part of how those states plan to meet emissions reduction targets.

This was going to be the year that offshore wind energy made a giant leap in the United States. Then the coronavirus arrived.

An offshore wind trade group said its main concern is the health of its workers, but the group  also worries that the virus will slow or stop work throughout the chain of suppliers and other service providers.

This could be said for just about any industry, but offshore wind is different in that it is in a formative stage, with almost no projects up and running, and more than a dozen in various phases of development along the East Coast. As a result, the industry faces challenges much greater than simply pausing work in an established supply chain.

"We see the virus situation slowing everything down, economywide, and our effort is to try to move these projects ahead as fast as possible to save the jobs, to keep the people in the supply chain working," said Jaime Steve, senior vice president for policy and programs at the Business Network for Offshore Wind, a trade group.

External link

Inside Climate News, 26 Mar 2020: At a critical moment, the coronavirus threatens to bring offshore wind to a halt