California greenlights most ambitious US offshore wind push with 25GW floating goal
The west coast state is the only one in the US to embrace floating technology in such aggressive fashion as it plans future energy mix
The California Energy Commission (CEC) on Wednesday approved its final strategic plan that charts a path to achieving the US west coast state’s interim goal of 2-5GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 25GW by 2045.
This includes an improved permitting process, port investments, grid and transmission infrastructure upgrades, as well as supply chain and workforce development efforts.
Last week, the Legislature passed a bond measure that includes $475m for offshore wind ports and $325m for clean energy transmission.
California Assembly Bill 525 in 2021 directed CEC, the state’s primary energy policy and planning agency, to establish offshore wind goals for 2030 and 2045. In 2022, CEC set those targets.
The law also required the commission to develop the strategic plan with the aim of utilising offshore wind over the deep waters of the Pacific outer continental shelf to help California achieve 100% clean energy by 2045.
California’s 25GW by 2045 goal dwarf efforts by other states to adopt offshore wind who anticipate, at least for now, using fixed-bottom foundations for turbines in near-shore Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico coastal waters.
New Jersey is targeting 11GW by 2040, New York 9GW by 2035, Maryland 8.5GW by 2031, and North Carolina 8GW by 2040. Louisiana looks to install 5GW by 2035 in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sam Salustro, vice president of strategic communication at Oceantic Network, a national group that promotes renewable energy development at sea, praised CEC for its “extensive efforts to lay the groundwork for offshore wind in the Golden State.”
He added: “Floating offshore wind provides reliable clean energy at the scale needed for California’s clean energy transition.”
It is also a relatively new sub-sector that faces development hurdles and risks globally such as lack of standardisation of floating technology, manufacturing capability, port infrastructure, supply chain inadequacies, and workforce training.
President Joe Biden has set a 2035 goal to deploy 15GW of floating offshore wind capacity as part of a sweeping federal-led effort to decarbonise the US electric grid by then.
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