BOEM Announces First California Offshore Wind Lease Sale

The Department of the Interior announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale on December 6, 2022 for the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA) and the Humboldt Wind Energy Area (WEA). The sale will be the first offshore wind lease sale on the U.S. west coast and the first sale to support potential commercial-scale floating offshore wind energy development.

BOEM will offer five California OCS lease areas that total approximately 373,268 acres with the potential to produce over 4.5 GW of offshore wind energy. The California Final Sale Notice (FSN) includes three lease areas off central California and two lease areas off northern California.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after BOEM released its final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) to the environment for the Morro Bay WEA. (see BOEM Completes Environmental Review of Morrow Bay Offshore Wind Area.)

The Biden administration has set a national target of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030. (see Offshore Wind Makes Initial Advancements in California.) The Biden administration also announced a multi-department effort to support the deployment of 15 GW of power by 2035 through new floating offshore wind platforms. (see Biden Administration to Support 15 GW of Floating Offshore Wind.) California’s steep continental shelf and increased wind speeds make floating turbines the primary technically feasible option along the west coast.

In May 2022, the Department of the Interior issued a proposed offshore wind lease sale off the California coast, three years after BOEM identified three possible offshore wind energy areas on the Outer Continental Shelf off the California coast: Humboldt, Morro Bay, and Diablo Canyon.