The government of Canada and the province of Nova Scotia have jointly designated the North Atlantic areas of French Bank, Middle Bank and Sable Island Bank off southern mainland Nova Scotia, and Sydney Bight off Cape Breton to the east, for a targeted 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030.   

The move is a ‘significant step’ towards developing an offshore wind industry that will provide clean jobs and long-term energy security, according to Tim Hodgson, Canada’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. ‘With some of the top wind speeds in the world, Nova Scotia has the potential to become a clean energy superpower. With the right infrastructure, we’ll have the opportunity to send our wind west to power other parts of Canada. By becoming an energy exporter, we can secure long-term prosperity for Nova Scotians.’  

The next step is to identify the parcels within the designated areas that will be included in the first call for bids later this year.   

After the first round of licences are awarded, four other areas identified in the regional assessment earlier this year will be revisited, including Western/Emerald Bank. 

One contender for Nova Scotia’s first offshore wind farm is being developed by DP Energy and SBM Offshore. Nova East Wind will be a 300–400 MW floating offshore wind project located 20–30 km off Goldboro, eastern Nova Scotia. The project will consist of approximately 20–25 floating wind turbines, each producing an anticipated 15 MW of energy. Commissioning is slated for 2030. It will help support Nova Scotia’s climate action targets of phasing out coal use and having 80% renewable energy by 2030.  

Recent US policy changes may end the US offshore wind boom by the early 2030s, report concludes 

Looking back, US wind farm installations more than doubled in the first quarter of 2025 compared to 2024, with 2.1 GW installed, according to a new report published by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association (ACP). The report shows that all installations in the first quarter came from onshore newbuild activity. Wood Mackenzie projects that a total of 8.1 GW of installed capacity will come online this year, including onshore, offshore and repowering projects. 

However, the US wind market faces significant headwinds, with permitting challenges, tariff hikes and a phaseout of tax credits following the passing of President Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Act (OBBBA) in the US Congress on 4 July. These factors led to a 50% drop in wind turbine orders for 1H2025 compared to the same period in 2024, taking them to their lowest level since 2020, according to the report.  

‘The surge in first-quarter wind installations, combined with a strong development pipeline, underscores the wind industry’s resilience and its capacity to rapidly deliver the clean, affordable and reliable energy America needs. But this momentum is threatened by the changing policy landscape. Regulatory obstructions will drive up costs, putting at risk the nation’s ability to meet its energy demands with homegrown clean power,’ comments John Hensley, ACP Senior Vice President of Markets and Policy Analysis.  

The OBBBA ends tax credits by 2027 and sets a ‘start of construction’ deadline 12 months after the Bill’s passage. According to the phaseout precedent, developers could have four years from that date to complete projects – a timeline currently under review by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Assuming that holds true, Wood Mackenzie’s analysis indicates a 3% reduction in the five-year forecast across onshore and offshore, which equates to 1.2 GW less capacity compared to the previous outlook.   

The most significant downside in the outlook is anticipated after 2030, once technology-neutral tax credits are fully phased out, at a time when the country will face growing power demand, according to the report.   

Wood Mackenzie notes that its modelling shows that across all states, tax credit expiration may increase unsubsidised levelised cost of energy (LCOE) by 25% on average. This impact is much greater than its modelled tariff scenarios, which can add up to 10% to LCOE. This ‘underscores the challenges developers face in offtake negotiations’ and the ‘critical role of policy support for continued wind deployment’, says the market analyst.   

Despite a volatile market, Wood Mackenzie forecasts average annual installations of 8.9 GW over the next five years across onshore, offshore and repowering segments. By the end of 2029, approximately 44 GW of wind power capacity is expected to have been installed, comprising nearly 33 GW from new onshore greenfield projects, 6 GW from offshore development and 5.4 GW from repowering. Cumulative capacity should reach 197 GW, it says.  

Just days after the Wood Mackenzie-ACP report was published, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced on 30 July that it was rescinding more than 3.5mn acres of wind energy areas (WEAs) designated for offshore wind development on the US Outer Continental Shelf, in yet another blow for the offshore wind industry. It said that by cancelling WEAs, it was ‘ending the federal practice of designating large areas of the Outer Continental Shelf for speculative wind development’. The de-designated WEAs, originally established to ‘identify offshore locations deemed most suitable for wind energy development’, are located across the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon and the Central Atlantic.

Note: forecasts in the Wood Mackenzie/ACP report were developed after the passage of the OBBBA and do not incorporate potential effects resulting from the Department of Interior’s 15 July directive requiring the Secretary to review wind and solar projects.