Technical potential refers to the total achievable energy generation of offshore wind, given various land-use, environmental, technology, and performance constraints. In other words, technical potential represents an upper-bound estimate of how much energy we can produce from offshore wind.
The United States has some of the highest offshore wind potential in the world. When combined, the U.S. coastline, including the Great Lakes region, has the technical potential of nearly 4,000 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity. Over 1,000 GW of this potential is highly productive, with capacity factors above 50%, suggesting offshore wind can provide affordable and reliable clean energy generation across the nation.
Offshore wind potential and capacity factors, averaged over seven weather years.
