Offshore Wind Makes Initial Advancements in California

State regulatory and legislative advancements along with recent federal actions begin a long process to bring wind energy off the coast of California. Technical and political challenges remain.

The California Coastal Commission took its biggest step in bringing offshore wind capacity to California with the conditional approval of two leasing auction plans off the coast of California.  The Coastal Commission concurred with the federal proposal for the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA) in June after concurred with the federal proposal for the Humboldt Wind Energy Area (WEA) in April 2022. The approvals allow the first proposed federal offshore wind lease auction to proceed in the fall.  California currently has almost 6 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind capacity but none offshore. The use of offshore wind is viewed as a critical component in the state’s goal of reach 100% carbon-free electricity.

The approvals follow two important steps in May 2022, when the California Energy Commission (CEC) issued a draft report on offshore wind capacity and the U.S. Department of the Interior proposed the first offshore wind lease sale on the U.S. west coast.

California Energy Commission Report

The CEC’s draft report laid out aggressive targets for California wind energy in proposing a “maximum feasible capacity” of 3 GW of offshore wind for California by 2030 and an additional 10–15 GW of offshore wind by 2045. The report noted that “there may be sufficient technological developments and related cost reductions” that “could support a faster rate of offshore wind deployment that could potentially support a larger megawatt planning goal of up to 20 GW between 2045 and 2050.”  The CEC reportedly delayed the final report, which was due June 1, 2022, after information from sector workshops and two new studies concluded that offshore wind deployment could reach up to 50 GW by 2045.

The report is the first of four reports required under Assembly Bill (AB) 525, which became law in September 2021 and requires the CEC to “evaluate and quantify the maximum feasible capacity of offshore wind to achieve reliability, ratepayer, employment, and decarbonization benefits” along with megawatt offshore wind planning goals for 2030 and 2045. AB 525 was an outgrowth of SB 100, which was passed in 2018 and set a goal of 100% zero-carbon electricity in California by 2045.  As required by the legislation, in March 2021, the CEC released its SB 100 Joint Agency Report, which assessed ways for the state to reach its target of 100% renewable energy and provided an initial assessment of costs and benefits. The report stated that California will need 145 GW of additional utility-scale renewable energy capacity to achieve the legislation’s goals by 2045.   The report’s scenarios included an addition of 10 GW of offshore wind by 2045 while noting that the state’s potential offshore wind resource was 112 GW.

AB 525 requires a second report assessing the economic benefits of offshore wind, including needed seaport investment and workforce development, is required by December 31, 2022. A third report on permitting is also due by December 31, 2022. The fourth report is required to develop a strategic plan for offshore wind development off the California coast in federal waters by June 30, 2023. The plan is to be prepared in coordination with various federal, state, and local agencies, and other stakeholders. It is required to identify suitable federal waters that could support the state’s offshore wind energy goals; evaluate port facilities and needed improvements to support wind energy; assess the transmission investments and needed upgrades; outline a roadmap for permitting that covers generation and transmission development; and quantify the potential impacts on coastal resources, fisheries, Native American and Indigenous peoples, and national defense.

Federal Support for Offshore

California’s legislative moves follow the Biden administration’s increased support for offshore wind development. In January 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order on climate change that set the goal of “doubling offshore wind” by 2030.  In March 2021, the administration announced a set of initiatives to increase offshore wind energy and set a national target of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a part of the Department of the Interior responsible for regulating offshore oil, gas, and renewable energy leasing, has also made advancements in wind energy projects in California. The May 2022 issuance of a proposed offshore wind lease sale off the California coast came 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. 

Interest in the areas for offshore wind development began with two unsolicited lease requests to BOEM in 2016, when Trident Wind submitted a lease request for Morro Bay and the Redwood Coast Energy Authority submitted a lease request for Humboldt.  The requests initiated BOEM’s process for offshore wind planning, and in 2018, the agency designated wind energy areas in Humboldt, in Northern California, and in Morro Bay, along the Central Coast. The Humboldt WEA comprises nearly 132,369 acres (206.8 square miles) off the coast of Humboldt County, in Northern California that could bring up to 1.6 GW of electricity.  The Morro Bay WEA covers approximately 240,898 acres (376 square miles) that could bring up to 3 GW of electricity.  The closure of the Morro Bay Power Plant and the expected closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in 2025 could open approximately 3.2 GW of transmission capacity for offshore wind.  Humboldt, meanwhile, has only 70 MW of transmission capacity and would require significant upgrades.

In May 2021, Newsom and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Dr. Colin Kahl agreed on development in the Humboldt and Morro Bay areas.  BOEM announced the beginning of its Environmental Assessment (EA) of the Humboldt WEA on July 28, 2021.  The EA considers potential environmental consequences of site characterization activities (i.e., biological, archeological, geological, and geophysical surveys and core samples) and site assessment activities (i.e., installation of meteorological buoys). The assessment also considers project easements associated with each potential lease and related right-of-way grants for subsea cable corridors.  BOEM published a draft EA on Humboldt on January 11, 2022.  For Morro Bay, BOEM released the draft EA on April 6, 2022. 

On May 5, 2022, BOEM announced the completion of an EA for the Humboldt WEA with a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), meaning that it will not require an Environmental Impact State (EIA).  The Department of the Interior soon after issued a Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) that includes three proposed lease areas in the Morro Bay WEA and two proposed lease areas in the Humboldt WEA.  The areas have potential to support 4.5 GW of offshore wind.  The proposals are open for public comment after which BOEM would issue a Final Sale Notice that sets the auction date, areas to be auctioned, and the auction format.  BOEM’s issuance of a lease does not authorize activity but begins a multi-year review process.

Current State-Level Initiatives

At the state level, in addition to Coast Commission activities, the California State Lands Commission is considering two applications for wind energy projects off the coast of Santa Barbara County.  The CADEMO Demonstration Project is for four 12-15 MW floating wind turbines and the Ideol USA Vandenberg Air Force Pilot Project is for four floating offshore wind turbines with a maximum generation capacity of 10MW each.

Challenges

Wind energy projects off the California coast will face technical, economic, and political challenges along with significant federal and state environmental reviews and permitting. The SB 100 Joint Agency Report noted the considerable challenges in connecting to the electric transmission grid and from competing coastal uses, including shipping, fishing, recreation, marine conservation, and Department of Defense activities.  The California Coastal Commission must also negotiate with state agencies to develop infrastructure in the state’s “coastal zone.” For connecting to the electric grid, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has directed the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to evaluate the costs of transmission upgrades to accommodate between 8.3 GW and 21.1 GW of offshore wind.

More significantly, a steep continental shelf and increased wind speeds make floating turbines the primary technically feasible option off the coast of California.  Under this structure, floating turbines are moored by a cable and anchored to an underwater substructure.  The National Renewable Energy Laboratory identified 200 GW of offshore wind technical potential, and approximately 96% of this potential is located in water deeper than 60 meters, where floating turbines would likely be required.  Most global offshore wind development, including projects off the U.S. East Coast, use fixed-foundation technologies in which a turbine is anchored to the seabed through a solid foundation.  Floating wind projects have not been deployed at the scale of fixed-foundation projects, but the 30 MW Hywind project in Scotland and the 24 MW WindFloat Atlantic project in Portugal have proven successful.