Offshore wind farm proposed for Gulf of Mexico near Galveston could power 2.3 million homes

U.S. President Joe Biden holds up a wind turbine size comparison chart while attending a meeting with governors, labor leaders and private companies launching the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership at the White House on June 23. (Credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

HOUSTON — The Gulf of Mexico’s first offshore wind farms will be developed off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, the Biden administration announced Wednesday, and together they’re projected to produce enough energy to power around 3 million homes.

The wind farms likely will not be up and running for years, energy analysts and the state’s grid operator said, but the announcement from the U.S. Interior Department is the first step in ramping up offshore wind energy in the United States, which has lagged behind that of Europe and China. The only two operating offshore wind energy farms in the U.S. are off the coasts of Rhode Island and Virginia, which together produce 42 megawatts of electricity — enough to power fewer than 2,500 homes.