Can we stop the US offshore wind cancellation chaos from spreading?

OWC’s Lukasz Sikorski writes for Recharge on the events of 2023 that have shown ‘business as usual’ in offshore wind must be replaced by a more outcome-focused approach.

Writing for Recharge in December 2023, Lukasz Sikorski (Director for Europe at OWC) looks at the announcements of major US offshore wind developers to step out of certain markets and scrap their projects, to explain why it doesn’t take long before people across other regions start asking “are offshore projects unprofitable and will this soon happen here?”

The common tropes and reasons for cancellations are pretty obvious, like the issues with the supply chain (both in terms of increasing costs and availability) and inflation, increasing interest rates and support scheme insufficiency (tax credits in the US case). These are very common problems seen around the world. 

But the question now is, is a cancelled project a better outcome than a never-ending development, with a decreasing chance of realisation?

Read the article in full, available online at Recharge