Building and operating a new offshore wind farm would bring at least $600 million in economic benefits to the Eastern seaboard state where it’s constructed, according to a new analysis by BW Research on behalf of environmental advocacy group Environmental Entrepreneurs.
Taken together, the five states included in the analysis — New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina — would reap $3.6 billion in economic benefits by building out new offshore wind farms.
U.S. offshore wind development has notoriously lagged behind European countries and, more recently, China, now the world’s third-largest offshore market.