An agreement yesterday among the Interior Department, California and the Department of Defense signals that a new kind of renewable power is set to emerge: floating offshore wind.
Dive Brief:
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced an effort with California to develop areas on the Western Outer Continental Shelf to bring up to 4.6 GW of floating offshore wind online.
The Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense announced the agreement with the state of California, as part of the administration’s goal to deploy 30 GW of total offshore wind in the U.S. by 2030. The Interior Department will hold a meeting on June 24 to discuss the West Coast areas identified as potential sites and conduct an environmental analysis for a lease sale auction targeted for mid-2022.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Department of Defense have reached an agreement to lease 399-square miles off California’s central coast for offshore wind development.
An area of Morro Bay in central California will support 3GW of offshore wind and the Humbolt Call Area will be considered as a potential offshore wind area.
“This announcement provides a clear path for offshore wind’s expansion to the West Coast and is a vital milestone for many major industry stakeholders,” said Liz Burdock, president and CEO of the Business Network for Offshore Wind.
“As the fifth largest economy in the world, the global offshore wind industry has been waiting for California to open. I commend Governor Newsom and his team for working diligently with Congress and the Administration to accomplish this important milestone.”
Governors Wind Energy Coalition
DOE, Interior officials outline offshore wind plans Source: By David Iaconangelo, E&E News reporter • Posted: Sunday, May 16, 2021
A 6-megawatt wind turbine, part of the Block Island wind farm off New Shoreham, R.I., is shown. Scott Eisen/Getty Images
Federal officials are launching new collaborations aimed at heading off challenges to the offshore wind industry following the approval of the nation’s first full-scale project this week.
Speaking at an industry forum last week, officials from the Department of Energy, Interior Department and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cited the need to prepare the grid and avoid transmission bottlenecks, jump-start U.S.-made supplies of turbine parts and at-sea installation vessels, and draw up the first industry-specific standards for workplace safety and environmental protection.
A US Department of Energy-backed initiative has started work on a roadmap to outline the benefits of the local supply chain in accelerating offshore wind development in the country.
The project is a partnership between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Business Network for Offshore Wind, the State of Maryland and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), as well as DoE.
NREL, the Business Network for Offshore Wind and also DNV will collaborate on the project.
The Network will gather data through its Supply Chain Connect tool, a database used by developers to search for suppliers and by vendors to introduce themselves to industry.