In the race towards a more sustainable energy future, Louisiana stands at the forefront — you could even say “sailing” ahead. The Pelican State is poised to harness the potential of offshore wind.
Spearheading the initiative is a collaborative effort from GNO Inc., along with an array of organizations ranging from big corporations to philanthropic entities and educators. The GNOwind Alliance is a free P3 program managed by GNO, Inc., and includes more than 250 organizations with a shared vision for Louisiana’s leading role in the emerging offshore wind industry. Together, they orchestrated an immersive, multi-city experience aimed at propelling the wind energy industry from mere concept and “what ifs” to tangible reality.
Part of that effort includes Louisiana Wind Energy Week, or “Wind Week.” Held for the first time in January, the event convenes local suppliers, community stakeholders, national partners, global developers, and environmental specialists in a week of enriching activities surrounding the State of Louisiana’s emerging offshore wind industry.
“The program is designed to advance key conversations concerning the opportunities and challenges facing the development of a robust offshore wind industry in Louisiana – carrying the State’s legacy as an offshore energy leader into the future,” said Cam Poole, Energy & Innovation at GNO Inc., and Program Manager for the GNOwind Alliance. “We’ve found that bringing diverse perspectives together who all want to see this move forward as robustly and sustainably as possible benefit greatly from having in person convenings like wind week to come together and problem solve.”
Poole said the inspiration for Louisiana Wind Energy Week came from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)’s National Offshore Wind Supply Chain and Workforce Assessments, which captured at a national level the immense economic opportunities that would materialize alongside the growth of the offshore wind industry. This also included some of the actions necessary to capture these opportunities from a federal and state policy perspective. “In partnership with the Southeast Wind Coalition, we brainstormed how we could take the findings of these studies most relevant to Louisiana companies and communities and distill them into an actionable program,” Poole said. “A week of robust discussions and planning sessions is what we landed on and thus Wind Week was born.”
The event took six months of planning and included an all-hands-on deck approach with local, national, and global partners – demonstrating the diverse groups committed to seeing Louisiana play a strong role in this emerging sector. NREL helped with initial program development of the Supply Chain and Workforce Workshops that took place in Baton Rouge over the first two days, and GNO Inc. partnered with University of New Orleans, SeaAhead, and the National Wildlife Federation for a day focused on environmental planning and research concerning offshore wind, and Tulane University Law School led the charge on regulatory and financial discussions with a closing program at Port of New Orleans.
Attendees included members of the GNOwind Alliance as well as additional local businesses, community college, higher education, and apprenticeship partners, regional environmental NGOs, and state leaders. Wind Week also saw national partners from the Oceantic Network, NREL, Turn Forward, American Clean Power (ACP), RWE, Shell, and others coming to Louisiana to participate and drive forward the program.
NREL ranks Louisiana #4 nationally for its wind resource potential, and the Gulf of Mexico cumulatively carries a majority of the nation’s wind resources – demonstrating the essential role the region will play as the nation seeks to expand offshore wind as an emission free energy resource that can provide clean power to industry and residential customers. But Poole said the Gulf has a bit of a “Goldilocks” issue. “On average, wind resources are available but at a lower speed than ideal for most turbines coming in at 7.5 m/s compared to the 9-10m/s ideal,” Poole said. “At the same time, we have a higher hurricane incidence which also necessitates wind turbines that are built to withstand these occasionally high-force winds. So innovators, such as those here in Louisiana like Gulf Wind Technology, and OEMs like Vestas (who has a project planned off Cameron Parish) have an impetus to design and produce products that can address these issues.”
Additionally, Poole said the energy market in Louisiana and across the Gulf differ from the East Coast, so there is a need to reconcile how to approach the offtake or “end use” of offshore wind energy. With 70% of our power going to industry and what are considered ‘hard to abate’ carbon-intensive sectors, many believe that Louisiana is well aligned with the ability to produce green hydrogen with wind power through a process referred to as electrolysis. GNO, Inc. through the GNOwind Alliance, not only helps create a forum for discuss and collaborate around these issues, but also drive action forward on them.
“I wish more people knew that offshore wind is an industry that isn’t looking to undercut Louisiana’s existing energy leadership, rather build upon it,” Poole said. “Louisiana’s legacy in offshore energy production is a big reason why many are banking on offshore wind’s success here, and provides an opportunity for exiting operations to satisfy external and internal motivations to reduce their carbon intensity.”
One of the attendees of Wind Week said the program of events did an excellent job convening experts to discuss solutions to the most pressing topics facing the U.S. market writ large — such as transmission and interconnection, Jones Act compliance challenges, and leasing and permitting needs.
“There were also great forward-looking discussions on how Louisiana can strengthen its already leading position in the domestic offshore wind supply chain, as well as integrate the existing oil and gas workforce into offshore wind through expansion of training opportunities,” said Alexandra St. Pé, Project Director, RWE Renewables. “The lesson I took away from the week was that the same Louisiana grit and ingenuity that powered the world over the last 75 years, will be the engine that fuels the region’s expansion into offshore wind.”
St. Pé echoed Poole and said one of the challenges in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore wind is lower average wind speeds than regions where offshore wind has historically been developed, as well as regular severe wind events like hurricanes. Organizations like RWE see this technological challenge as an opportunity to partner with leaders in the region who have worked in offshore energy for decades, and with other partners across the value chain including wind turbine manufacturers, to develop innovative solutions that can enable development of offshore wind in the Gulf while also providing new designs and technology that can be used elsewhere.
That’s why they’re supporting a consortium effort led by LSU, called Gulf Louisiana Offshore Wind or GLOW, to secure federal funding for local research and innovation into turbine designs and technology that can optimize for the local conditions — and this technology can be exported to other markets around the world.
For St. Pé, investing in wind just makes sense — both for the planet and for the state. “Offshore wind has the potential to be an incredibly important energy resource for Louisiana,” she said. “These projects produce a lot of energy – in fact, just one rotation of one offshore wind turbine can power a home for a day. As energy demand continues to increase, offshore wind offers an opportunity to diversify our domestic energy supply while expanding the Gulf region’s world-class energy and maritime expertise to build and operate the projects.”
Next year, Louisiana Wind Energy Week will take place January 27-31, 2025.
