Oregon's prospects for large-scale electricity generation from offshore wind look promising given the abundant carbon-free resource and ongoing advances in floating technology that will further reduce costs, according to a US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study.

NREL looked at five potential sites on a north-south axis in federal waters along the state’s blustery Pacific Ocean coast and modeled costs based on a 600MW commercial project employing 40, 15MW turbines with floating technology.