Louisiana has taken another step towards setting up offshore wind turbines: Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill that creates a framework for offshore wind leasing in state waters for the first time. Local business leaders are excited for the possibilities.
"Offshore wind represents two distinct but related opportunities for Louisiana," said GNO Inc. president Michael Hecht.
"The first is that Louisiana is already the supply chain for offshore wind across America," Hecht said, "meaning that we are engineering, we are installing, we are building and maintaining the offshore wind structures for the whole country."
"The second opportunity's going to be actually deploying wind structures in the Gulf of Mexico," said Hecht. ""That's why what the governor signed is so significant, because these structures in the Gulf of Mexico are predicted to make Louisiana number four in the country for offshore wind potential."
Hecht says it not only diversifies our energy sources, it sets up Louisiana to be a leader in creating hydrogen without emitting carbon -- that is, hydrogen that is created by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, as opposed to hydrogen that is created by stripping it from natural gas.
