Almost ten years ago, a start-up company called Trident Winds shook up the West Coast by filing an unsolicited application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for an Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) renewable energy lease in federal waters offshore California.
As required, BOEM published a notice in the Federal Register announcing Trident Winds’ request and notice for public comment, as well as solicited submissions from other companies to see if there was other interest in commercial leasing of wind energy off California.
State of California Expresses Support for Offshore Wind
Surprisingly, fourteen companies responded, catching some other energy companies completely off-guard, wondering if they had missed a key step and lost out on the process. More shocking perhaps was the State of California expressing support toward the offshore wind industry. BOEM and California were part of a Task Force to discuss and coordinate the planning process.
California then passed landmark legislation with its “100 Percent Clean Energy Act” in 2018 (Senate Bill 100), in which the state recognized the need to build an unprecedented amount of new utility-scale clean energy to reach 100 percent clean electricity by 2045. The state also recognized that areas off the coast could generate a significant amount of energy to meet these goals, which was further outlined in Assembly Bill 525’s Offshore Wind Energy Strategic Plan.
After several years and many task force meetings, two wind energy areas (WEAs) were evaluated and approved to move forward to the leasing phase. One of the WEAs was situated along the north coast offshore Humboldt County and the other along the central coast offshore San Luis Obispo County.
Five Companies Win Rights to Lease Areas
BOEM held a lease auction in December 2022. After 31 rounds with increasingly higher bids submitted, five companies won the rights to five lease areas (two in the northern WEA and three in the central WEA) for a little more than $757 million. These leases allow the companies to collect all necessary data and information that for the plans needed to request federal/state permits and other authorizations. It is anticipated that this initial data collection phase will last at least three to five years (or more) before a plan is ready to be submitted for review.
Offshore Floating Platforms Required
Because these lease sites are more than 20 miles from shore, with water depths exceeding 3,000 feet, the turbines will need to be built on floating platforms moored to the seabed. This is technology continues to evolve and requires significant engineering design and testing.
Currently, there is a giant turbine of 25 megawatts (MW) in the testing phase off France. Just one revolution of such a turbine could theoretically generate enough power to run a typical home for 1.5 days; just one single spin….
Around the same time, and within California’s state waters (i.e., generally three miles away from shore), two other companies had submitted applications to the State Lands Commission for floating wind pilot projects offshore Santa Barbara County; the objective being to provide clean power to Vandenburg Space Force Base.
As a note, the state’s offshore wind process is completely different from the federal offshore wind process under BOEM. In 2021, the State Lands Commission approved the development of an environmental impact assessment; however, that process has stalled and does not appear to be moving forward at this time.
Forecasting What This Could Mean for California Offshore Wind
So, what does this all mean? Until zero emission technology (wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear, etc.) tax policy certainty was established by the Infrastructure Investment Act and Jobs Act under the Biden Administration, these types of projects had been happening in fits and starts. This is obviously not conducive to obtaining funding from private capital firms.
A challenge is again happening at the federal level, courtesy President Trump’s day one order to pause permitting processes for offshore wind projects. Subsequent actions by Trump and the Department of Interior, where BOEM is housed, have all but guaranteed that federal permits will not be issued any time soon for existing offshore wind lease holders.
Meanwhile, the State of California has an opportunity to lead the way on certain state actions. For one, it could streamline the state permitting process and develop regulations needed to purchase power from offshore wind developers, both of which could take years to establish with public input. California ports, particularly the ports of Long Beach and Humboldt, are a few years into the process upgrading their facilities to accommodate offshore wind projects. Funding and permitting needed will likewise involve a significant amount of time and public input. Equally important will be significant upgrades to the electric transmission grid, which have only just begun.
It is now almost ten years to plan for West Coast offshore wind. It may take another ten years before any project will be ready to put “steel in the water.” That gets us to 2035 – which is still enough time to meet the state’s clean energy goals.
Or will that be good enough? Only time will tell….