President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday announced final approval of a wind project off the coast of Maryland, bringing the U.S. halfway to its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of the clean energy technology by 2030.
The project is the 10th approved by Biden's Interior Department. He has made offshore wind a cornerstone of his climate change agenda.
The Maryland Offshore Wind Project, which is being developed by US Wind, could one day generate enough electricity to power 718,000 homes, Interior said in a statement. The lease area is about 9 nautical miles off the coasts of Maryland and Delaware.
US Wind is a subsidiary of Renexia SpA, the renewable development arm of Italian infrastructure firm Toto Holding.
Interior and White House officials celebrated the milestone of permitting 15 gigawatts of offshore wind, half the capacity the administration in 2021 said it wanted to have in the water by 2030.
Few in the industry expect that goal to be met, citing a flurry of setbacks including soaring costs and supply chain disruptions that have led to project delays and cancellations.
"We never thought this exercise would be easy or smooth sailing," Liz Klein, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, said on a call with reporters, adding the administration would keep working toward its goal.
The project will have 114 wind turbines and is expected to be brought online in phases.
(Reuters - Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by David Gregorio)
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