Bonus: Can the DOE Offshore Effort Meet Goals?

In this podcast episode, we delve into the latest DOE report on offshore wind energy in the US, which presents four key initiatives to achieve ambitious targets of 30GW by 2030 and 110GW by 2050. The report focuses on reducing the costs of fixed bottom offshore wind by 30% and floating wind by 70%. The pressing question is whether these goals can be achieved within the specified timeline. Phil Totaro of Intelstor, offers his expert insights into the ups and downs of the offshore wind supply chain and discusses strategies to drive down costs and pave the way towards meeting these critical targets. Tune in to gain valuable knowledge on the current state and future prospects of offshore wind energy in the US. Visit Pardalote Consulting at https://www.pardaloteconsulting.com Wind Power Lab - https://windpowerlab.com Weather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.com Intelstor - https://www.intelstor.com DOE Report - https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2023-03/advancing-offshore-wind-energy-full-report.pdf Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!  Uptime 160 Bonus Allen Hall: Welcome to this bonus edition of the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm your host, Allen Hall, president of Weather Guard Lightning Tech, and in today's episode we'll be discussing the Department of Energy's ambitious strategy to lower the electricity prices of offshore wind energy. As you may already know, the DOE has recently published two significant Efforts, the NOW Program and the Forward program that present a set of technology and financial goals for offshore wind energy production. The NOW program seeks to reduce fixed bottom wind prices from their current rate of roughly $74, a megawatt hour by 30% to $51 per megawatt hour. While the Ford program aims to lower floating wind energy prices by an astounding 70% from the predicted rate of $150, a megawatt hour to $45 a megawatt. Both programs are focusing on achieving these energy price reduction goals in the near term by 2030 and 2035. Respectfully, however, with only seven offshore wind turbines currently in the United States and limited offshore wind manufacturing in place. Meeting these now and forward goals will be a significant challenge to help us understand the Department of Energy's goals and what can realistically be done to lower offshore electricity prices. We have Phil Zaro, c e o of intra with us. Phil,  Phil Totaro: welcome back. Thanks, Ellen. Great to be here.  Allen Hall: So there's, there's a lot to this d OE effort and I, I wanted to bring you on in specifically to, to hash through some of the financial questions that pop up when we, when, when the DOE is asking for a 30% reduction in fixed bottom offshore and a 70% reduction in floating offshore. Those are big numbers for a relatively developed product line. First  Phil Totaro: of all, the. Turbine price still has room to come down. Right now, outside, let's ignore China for a second, because they're, they're a pretty special case. But for offshore wind outside of China, right now you're talking on average turbine prices, somewhere between 1.4 and 1.6 million per megawatt. And, you know, steady to slightly climbing the. Effects of inflation on offshore wind hasn't been as pronounced because turine prices in offshore were already pretty high. So there, there are, you know, the same type of supply chain issues that you see in onshore are also prevalent in offshore, just not as pronounced. So that's, that's one area of reduction. So I mean, from, you know, between 1.4 to 1.6,