Offshore Wind in America

The promise and potential of clean energy off our coasts

The promise and potential of clean energy off our coasts

Environment Virginia Research & Policy Center

The United States currently relies heavily on fossil fuels to heat our homes, fuel our cars, power our machines and produce electricity, harming our health and our climate.

Across the country, however, America is beginning to embrace the promise of clean, renewable energy. Today, the U.S. gets about 11.5 percent of our electricity from wind, solar and geothermal sources, up from about 0.6 percent two decades ago. America’s abundant renewable energy resources, coupled with energy efficiency measures and technological advances that have made renewable energy cheaper and better than ever, open the possibility of transitioning our entire economy to run on 100 percent renewable energy.

To get there, we must take advantage of a massive and underutilized energy resource just off our coasts: offshore wind.

Topics