Oceantic Network today released a report based on a gathering of offshore wind industry leaders representing the breadth of the offshore wind industry in November 2023. Durable optimism filled the room as the group met to discuss supply chain barriers and explore pressing industry topics, such as strengthening project viability and turbine growth. The Network’s Leadership 100 Offshore Wind 2024 Action Plan executive summary shares much of the valuable insight gained by L100 Summit attendees with the broader offshore wind industry, which focuses on key steps the Network and industry can take to ensure success in the years ahead. Participants spoke under Chatham House rules and, in addition to predetermined agenda items, participants discussed further topics including transmission and workforce development.

Key findings from the Leadership 100 Summit include:

• The potential to foster greater supply chain investments and advancements by both encouraging greater project viability in the procurement structure and decoupling projects from port and transmission infrastructure development.

• The need to build a greater understanding of the downstream supply chain costs and increased market risk that comes from continually increasing turbine sizes and lead to less efficient development.

• The need for a greater industry-wide collaborative communications strategy to combat misinformation and increase public support for offshore wind.

• Data-sharing will strengthen the industry through building public support, reducing pre-development costs, or helping make more environmentally sound regulatory decisions.

“The offshore wind industry is in the middle of an extraordinary transitional period,” said Sam Salustro, vice president of strategic communications at Oceantic Network. “L100 produced critical insights on how the industry can ensure its success into the future by bringing together industry leaders to identify shared hurdles to growth and find concrete ways to address them. The Network is already hard at work implementing new plans based on these new findings, and substantial progress has already been made to strengthen and support the industry – conversations that will continue in two weeks at IPF in New Orleans.”

Attendees brainstormed specific actions to address industry problems, including:

• Develop recommendations for improvements to state procurement process

• Advance new understandings into the costs and benefits of increasing turbine sizes

• Create of a Communications Working Group to coordinate public and policymaker outreach across the industry

• Increase collaboration between the Network, industry, and research institutions to optimize and improve industry data