When Opportunity Knocks: IPF 2019 Show Notes, Day 1

If the first full day of the 2019 International Partnering Forum could be summed up in one word, it would be "opportunity". Over 1,200 people packed the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt in New York City to hear about the opportunity for economic growth, investment, jobs, technical innovation, and shared success among the states. New York City was the perfect backdrop for the buzzing energy of a budding US offshore wind industry that is poised on the cusp of explosive growth.

1. Opportunity for supply chain:

WindEurope CEO Giles Dickinson perfectly framed the potential for a geographically diverse supply chain to grow in the US to support offshore wind. His graphical presentation of how ports and supply chain have grown alongside a ramp-up in deployment in Europe, accompanied by a steady drop in installed costs. While the major deployment harbors naturally attract larger component manufacturing due to complex logistics in moving massive turbines or blades, the opportunity for smaller subcomponent manufacturing is not restricted by this geography.

2. Opportunity for technical innovation:

From the integration of massive amounts of offshore wind into the grid to unique adaptations to more constrained harbor environments, there is tremendous opportunity and need for new technology solutions to support the US offshore wind market. Smaller harbors could require innovative stacking or other storage solutions, and as turbine sizes continue to grow this need will become even more acute. The same harbors are driving a renewed focus on complex barge to barge lifting procedures and other ways to reduce reliance on specialized jack-up installation vessels that have difficulty accessing harbors located behind bridges. Energy storage, substation upgrades, and transmission constraints present additional opportunities for energy services to better utilize the carbon offset potential of offshore wind as part of a rapidly decarbonizing energy mix on the East Coast.

3. Opportunity for new policy approaches

The only key phrase heard nearly as often today was "coordination". Not only is this industrial opportunity driving new thinking about how individual states can work together on infrastructure issues like ports and harbors, but also on issues as diverse as regional transmission, workforce development, procurement strategies, and climate leadership. Marie Hindhede of the Danish ministry of Energy described a need for holistic policy approaches to look beyond simply finding cost effective clean electricity generation to drive greater value to society. This type of holistic approach and regional coordination presents an exciting opportunity to think creatively about more effective ways to work toward shared policy goals.