Economic Potential of Wind Development in South Carolina

Abstract

While the global offshore wind capacity has grown significantly in the past few years largely driven by Europe and China, the United States is only now starting to develop the significant supplies of wind available off its coasts. With the first wind farm beginning operations and more offshore leases being secured, momentum is building to bring an offshore wind supply chain to the Atlantic coast. The supply chain will provide significant economic benefits to the states where it develops. States that adopt policies supporting offshore wind and its supply chain will be able to take advantage of the associated economic and job benefits. Our report focuses on South Carolina as an area with significant offshore resources as well as great potential for supply chain development. We examined the potential impacts of offshore wind development on the state by determining a maximum available capacity for wind energy, and then modeling a hypothetical wind farm to project electricity cost, outputs and economic impacts. These results are accompanied with an assessment of current and potential policy factors as well as likely areas of supply chain growth.