A recent Tech Brew article spotlighted a new report by a team of CRA’s Energy consultants that addresses a critical shift in energy demand patterns.
As electrification of heating accelerates, peak demand on the East Coast is moving from summer to winter and creates new challenges for grid reliability.
Dr. Oliver Stover, Associate Principal at CRA, emphasized that offshore wind is uniquely positioned to help. “On the East Coast, wind often blows the hardest on those really cold days, which is a really nice synergy,” Dr. Stover noted in a webinar on the report. The report highlights offshore wind’s ability to deliver its highest output during extreme cold events, making it an ideal complement to existing generation sources.
The analysis positions offshore wind not as a silver bullet, but as a complementary generation pathway particularly suited to densely populated coastal markets like New England, Virginia and New York—areas where land availability constraints traditional power development.
While offshore wind faces a limited window for cost-competitive deployment before greater market penetration reduces its efficacy, many projects remain in advanced development stages, positioning them for rapid deployment should current regulatory obstacles resolve.
Read the full report on how offshore wind can help power the future.
