Offshore Wind

SEA’s Offshore Wind practice area offers strategic, market, policy and procurement support services to help our public- and private-sector clients make informed decisions. From helping clients craft offshore wind procurement strategies and solicitations that maximize achievement of policy objectives, to supporting strategic investment decisions in lease area auctions, to optimizing market revenue opportunities, SEA provides cross-cutting advisory and analytical support that guides our clients to take optimal actions in the rapidly expanding offshore wind policy and market landscape. Our practice area stands out by:

Experience: SEA has been supporting offshore wind policy and market development in the Northeast US since its early phase. SEA supported the first state study of support approaches for offshore wind.  SEA supported contract approval for the Block Island Wind Farm, the first offshore wind farm in the US.  In 2016, SEA led the development of a study as part of a DOE-funded Multi-State Offshore Wind Roadmap project for Massachusetts, New York, and Rhode Island. We helped New York State evaluate, select and support its offshore wind procurement policy , and contributed to developing the State’s first offshore wind solicitation.  SEA senior staff guest lecture on offshore wind economics, policies, procurements, competitive dynamics, wholesale electricity markets and interconnection for a graduate-level offshore wind program training professionals populating the offshore wind industry.

Our interdisciplinary capability: Our comprehensive understanding of the policy and market context, objective practice, and suite of qualitative and quantitative tools, allow us to support a broad clientele, while offering customized and targeted solutions that address each of their unique needs.  Examples of our support include:

• Offshore wind policy design and analysis
• Procurement development
• Competitive procurement cost and deployment analysis
• Commercial opportunity and risk analysis of offtake procurement programs
• Market opportunities assessment, including cross-market analysis
• Bid response support, including strategic support and analysis
• Risk analysis, including assessment of revenue, delivery and basis
• Strategic approach development, counterparty identification, screening and negotiation support for buyers seeking bilateral negotiated offshore wind supply
• Transaction due diligence and other support.

Deep policy & market knowledge: Our Offshore Wind practice area is complemented by over 20 years of experience analyzing renewable energy policy and market issues and a deep knowledge of wholesale market issues, which give us a profound understanding of their interactions with offshore wind and an unmatched ability to offer interdisciplinary solutions.

Cutting-edge analytical tool: We have developed a proprietary Simulator of Northeast Offshore Wind Buildout and LCOE (SNOWBaL) model designed to forecast the levelized cost of entry (LCOE) and bid pricing for offshore wind deployment of various scales, delivered to various locations in the Northeast US in response to various state procurement opportunities. The model supports policy and business decision making by analyzing the alternative procurement outcomes of competition between offshore wind projects, lese areas, and states. This user-friendly model can also be licensed to third-party users.