United States Offshore Wind Vessel Market Outlook

Student

Luke Schneider

College(s)

Mendoza College of Business

Faculty Advisor

Chao Shin-Liu

Class Year

2020

Currently, Western European countries dominate the offshore wind energy market. However, the U.S. has exceptionally large coastlines with an abundance of untapped energy potential. However, the major problem with the U.S. offshore wind energy market are the vessels that are a part of the transportation process on offshore wind farm projects.

In order to solve this problem, this report evaluates whether or not the United States should invest in specialized offshore wind energy vessel manufacturers. In order to do this, the report will look at the projected offshore wind market in the U.S., the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the production tax credit, the different types of offshore wind energy vessels, the costs of these vessels, and three different scenarios that could play out.

The major finding of this report is that there should be and will be investments into U.S. offshore wind energy vessel manufacturers. However, the timetable for these investments is uncertain.