The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has completed its environmental review of an area offshore wind area in Northern California that paves the way for a development auction this fall.
Development of the Humboldt Wind Energy Area, located 20 miles offshore Humboldt County, is expected to have no significant environmental impact, BOEM determined in its analysis.
BOEM hasn’t yet set a date for the Humboldt WEA lease auction, although agency officials have signaled that the intent is to hold the Pacific Coast’s first offshore wind lease auction this fall.
The Humboldt WEA is expected to be auctioned at the same time as the Morro Bay WEA, which has a draft environmental assessment available for public comment.
“The completion of the (Humboldt WEA) Environmental Assessment represents an important step forward for ensuring that any future renewable energy development – should a lease sale occur — is done in a responsible manner,” BOEM Director Amanda Lefton said. “Working closely with Tribes, state and federal partners and key stakeholders, BOEM remains focused on ensuring that such development is done in a way that avoids or reduces potential impacts to the environment and other ocean users in the region.”
The Humboldt WEA contains 132,369 acres of the ocean for potential offshore wind development, which could bring up to 1.6 GW of clean energy to California’s grid. The 240,898 acres within the Morro Bay WEA are some 20 miles off San Luis Obispo County, California. The area is expected to bring 3 GW of clean energy to the grid when fully developed.
The respective depths of 900-1,300m and 500-1,100m for the Morro Bay and Humboldt WEAs require floating offshore wind technology.
(Industry leaders from Aker Offshore Wind, Principle Power, BOEM, and Offshore Wind California discussed the next steps for the floating offshore wind industry in a recent RENEWABLE+ Series virtual event, which can now be viewed for free on-demand.)
Interest in the California offshore wind leases is expected to be high.
Ørsted, Shell, Ocean Winds (EDP Renewables/ENGIE), Equinor, bp, RWE Renewables, Castle Wind (TotalEnergies/Trident Winds), Arevia Power, JERA Renewables NA, Marubeni Power International, and Aker Offshore Wind are among the companies that responded to BOEM’s Call for Information and Nominations for the Morro Bay WEA.
Auctions for the rights to develop the U.S. Pacific Coast with floating offshore wind stands to be “extremely competitive,” according to Aker Offshore Wind’s senior vice president of U.S. operations, Jonah Margulis.
“All the indications are that it’s going to be extremely competitive. Not just in California, if you look globally in floating (offshore wind) there is a tremendous acceleration of the projects, of the scale of the projects. We’re now talking large commercial-scale floating projects. A few years ago that was maybe a pipe dream and now that’s reality.”
In April, BOEM issued two Calls for Information and Nominations for separate areas offshore the Oregon and central Atlantic coasts. The Biden administration has set a goal of developing 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.
Each call will initiate a separate comment period for the public to weigh in on the potential development of the offshore wind areas. Developers can nominate specific areas for leasing.
BOEM has already conducted engagement activities with stakeholder organizations, ocean users, federal agencies, states, Tribal governments, and other parties ahead of the Call for Information and Nominations.
BOEM is seeking information on six areas representing nearly 4 million acres off the central Atlantic coast, from southern Delaware to mid-North Carolina.
The Oregon call, meanwhile, requests information regarding two areas for a combined 1.2 million acres. The Coos Bay Call Area and Brookings Call Area are off the coast of central and southern Oregon, respectively.
In March, BOEM announced that it would hold its next offshore wind lease auction on May 11 for the rights to develop two areas offshore the Carolinas. The auctions are timed to occur before a moratorium on offshore wind leases signed by former President Donald Trump is to take effect July 1. The 10-year moratorium would ban offshore wind leasing in the area stretching from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico, ending at the Florida Keys.
BOEM issued the Final Sale Notice (FSN) for the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area on March 25. Qualified offshore wind developers can bid on the rights to develop one or both of the lease areas.
BOEM announced 16 companies that are pre-approved to bid on the Carolina Long Bay offshore wind leases.
The companies are 547 Energy, Arevia Power, Avangrid Renewables, bp, Invenergy, Carolina Offshore Wind, Duke Energy, EDF Renewables, JERA Renewables, Masdar Offshore Wind, MRP Offshore Wind Farm, Ørsted, Ocean Winds, RWE, Shell, and TotalEnergies.
