The sea level is rising and we are on the way. Although in the long run there is no way to hold back the Pacific Ocean, we can start to slow it down if we now switch to renewables on a global scale. This means a rapid transition to wind and solar power. We have no time to waste if we are to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

The United States took a big step forward two weeks ago. On May 11, the U.S. government issued final federal approval for the Vineyard Wind project, a large-scale wind farm that has been in planning for more than 10 years. Project developers plan to install 62 large turbines about 15 miles southeast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, with enough capacity to power 400,000 homes with clean energy.

This is the first project approved since the Biden administration announced in March its goal of developing 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity this decade and vowed to expedite the federal review process. To put that 30,000 megawatt goal into perspective, the United States has just seven offshore turbines in the water today, producing 42 megawatts of electricity. Vineyard Wind will add 800 megawatts to that in 2023, an expansion of nearly 20 times the capacity of offshore wind power in the United States.

There are 13 other projects in the licensing process spread out from Maine to North Carolina, which could put 3,000 wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean. Vineyard Wind will create 3,600 planned jobs for US workers with the projected 44,000 people employed in offshore wind by 2030. In addition, a $ 500 million vessel capable of installing the offshore turbines is being built at Texas, and in April a 2,500-ton turbine foundation plant began in New Jersey.

Today, Europe has 5,400 individual wind turbines rising from the seabed with a capacity of 25,000 megawatts of energy, enough to power more than 8 million homes. As a global manufacturing hub for the offshore wind industry, the European Union said in 2019 that this sector accounts for 210,000 jobs in its 27 member countries and the UK. Europe was one step ahead of us, however, as Denmark launched its first offshore wind farm 30 years ago.

The UK is the world leader with 10,206 megawatts of installed offshore wind capacity and they recently announced a new North Sea project off the Yorkshire coast that will provide electricity to over 4.5 million of homes. These will be the largest turbines in the world and will have a height of over 850 feet. When completed in 2026, the wind farm will generate 5% of the UK’s total electricity.

With the exception of China No. 2, all the other leading offshore wind countries are in Northern Europe. Many governments in Europe have reduced regulatory risks to the industry, and as a result, the cost of offshore wind power has fallen much faster than expected to around $ 50 / megawatt hour. A similar approach in the United States would allow wind farms here to be competitive with other sources of electricity in large urban centers along the East Coast.

An additional and key benefit of these new planned US projects is that the new offshore wind energy target would prevent the release of 86 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, which is roughly equivalent to removing 17 million of highway cars for a year.

We still have a long way to go to become sustainable in our energy production, but we are now moving in the right direction. The renewable energy sector is creating jobs at an average rate 12 times faster than the entire U.S. economy. Renewable energy is our fastest growing source of energy and accounted for over 17% of our electricity production in 2018, hydropower accounting for 7% and wind power producing 6.6%.

In order to accelerate our development of offshore wind energy, state and federal governments must put in place a licensing process that encourages development while being sensitive to the marine environment. If we are to make significant progress in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and developing our renewable energy sources, the regulatory and licensing process must be clear, efficient and organized with a single agency. based on past experience combined with common sense.

Gary Griggs is Professor Emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. He can be contacted at griggs@ucsc.edu. For past Ocean Backyard reviews, visit http://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/about-us/news/our-ocean-backyard-archive/.