Offshore wind energy has significant potential to advance the blue economy goals of social equity, environmental sustainability, and economic prosperity. Progress will rely, however, on a better understanding of the potential positive and negative effects of offshore wind on communities, their economies, and their dependencies on coastal and marine ecosystems, along with the diversity of populations and perspectives engaged in offshore wind planning and permitting.  

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) aims to address knowledge gaps in the sustainable development of offshore wind and enable planners and developers to engage communities more effectively in collaborative decision-making. This work supports the strategic goals of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the nation to reduce carbon emissions, increase energy security, and develop place-based, community-driven offshore wind along the West Coast.  

An internally funded PNNL project, Advancing Community-Engaged Research for Offshore Wind on the West Coast, aims to develop scalable and equitable place-based approaches to integrate community values and considerations of ocean co-use into offshore wind development. Through literature review and expert interviews, the project will produce a framework that links public engagement research with community perspectives on offshore wind development to achieve mutually beneficial social, economic, and environmental outcomes. It will also create an inventory of community goals, priorities, and perceptions to better characterize relationships between communities and offshore wind projects.  

Through the “Offshore Wind Communities and Ocean Co-use Study”, PNNL will design a community typology analysis with an initial focus on the West Coast. This analysis will explore diverse community needs and values, as well as develop a suite of conceptual models identifying relationships between community values, socioeconomic outcomes, coastal and marine ecosystems, and offshore wind. PNNL will convene an expert committee made of representatives from government agencies, such as DOE, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, leaders of community-based organizations, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations. The community typology analysis, engagement with key actors, and conceptual models will lay the foundation for future work. Such research may include developing and applying a natural capital framework for assessing socioeconomic benefits and costs of offshore wind that could be used in collaboration with communities to explore development pathways that consider local priorities.   

The “West Coast Offshore Wind Transmission Study” builds on knowledge and capabilities developed in the two efforts described above. It quantifies socioeconomic values of marine and coastal systems to evaluate the costs and benefits of proactive and coordinated transmission planning.  

These projects are advancing PNNL’s capabilities in community-engaged offshore wind research, enabling development of new strategies, holistic approaches and tools, and timely data products to help integrate community values into all stages of offshore wind development, from planning to operation. The advancements will, in turn, lay the foundation for meaningful collaboration and partnerships with federal, state, local, and tribal governments, regional and local planning groups, developers, and other stakeholders engaging communities in offshore wind projects.