WASHINGTON – The thought that wind farms in the Pacific would be churned up and generating clean energy to power homes and businesses has long been rejected due to logistical challenges arising from a deep seabed Opposition from the military, which does not favor obstacles for its naval ships.
The advancement of technology and a president determined to expand wind power rapidly have dramatically changed the outlook for wind farms in the Pacific. On Tuesday, the Navy gave up its opposition and joined the Home Office to bless two areas off the California coast that the government said could be developed for wind turbines.
The plan provides for commercial offshore wind farms in an area of 399 square miles in Morro Bay along central California and another area off the coast of Humboldt in Northern California.
It was the federal government’s premier move to promote wind energy along the west coast and part of President Biden’s aggressive plan to expand renewable energy and move the nation away from fossil fuels. “This is a breakthrough that enables the location of offshore winds in the Pacific,” said Gina McCarthy, the White House climate adviser.
And it is a milestone for California, which is committed to renewable energies and has experienced the effects of climate change like hardly any other state. Forest fires raged last summer and the highest temperature ever recorded was 130 degrees Fahrenheit in Death Valley. Sea levels are rising, coasts are eroding and drought is increasing.
Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, named the move “Historical.”
“Developing offshore wind power to produce clean, renewable energy could make a big difference in meeting California’s clean energy goals and tackling climate change – while strengthening the economy and creating new jobs,” said Newsom, who regularly visits the The Trump administration had grappled with California’s attempts to reduce fossil fuel pollution, but has found an ally in President Biden.
The announcement came weeks after the Biden government approved the country’s first commercial offshore wind farm to be built off the coast of Massachusetts. Around a dozen other offshore wind projects along the east coast are currently being examined by the federal government.
The government estimates that wind turbines in Morro Bay and near Humboldt combined could generate enough electricity to supply 1.6 million households with electricity.
If those numbers are realized, it could turn the California coast into one of the largest wind power generators in the world. The new wind farm on the Massachusetts coast is expected to have up to 84 giant wind turbines. By comparison, Newsom estimated that the California sites could accommodate more than 300 turbines.
Administrative officials declined to say when the areas could be rented out to businesses. Home Secretary Deb Haaland was asked to offer a timetable and said, “This is a priority for us and we are excited about it.”
While the offshore wind industry is booming around the world, particularly near the coasts of Norway and the UK, it is thriving where the water is shallow and turbines can be anchored to the seabed. In contrast, the bottom of the Pacific Ocean slopes steeply from the coast, making the water too deep to anchor wind towers. As a result, some companies have built floating turbines. There are currently around 20 such small floating turbine farms in the world, and none of the size that Mr. Newsom envisaged.
However, the California governor said he had already heard from potential developers. “We not only had international companies but also governments turning to us,” he said. “We expect enormous interest.”
ENBW, a German electricity company that owns and operates four wind farms off the coast of Germany, intends to sign leases for the construction of a floating wind farm in Morro Bay, said company spokesman Damian Bednarz. The project, called Castle Wind, would consist of dozens of floating turbines, enough to power hundreds of thousands of households, he said.
While this is the first time ENBW has produced floating turbines, the company has been working with the federal government and the state of California for the past five years to pave the way for the Castle Wind project, Bednarz said.
“We’re starting this industry from scratch on the west coast,” he said. “We have had a lot of positive feedback from players in Washington and Sacramento that there is a real interest in it
But groups representing the fishing industry are outraged that the government has pushed ahead with a plan that is larger and potentially more disruptive to marine life than expected.
“We’re totally against it,” said Tom Hafer, president of the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization. “We consulted with the people of Castle Wind for a long time, helped choose the location and developed a memorandum of understanding for an area that we believed would be sustainable for us. That was about 120 square miles. This is 399 square miles. We are going to lose quite a number of fishing grounds. There will be cables in the water. We don’t know how the whales will react. There are many unknowns. People don’t know how massive this project is going to be. “
The steps come as Mr Biden pledged to cut the country’s fossil fuel emissions by 50 percent by 2030 compared to 2005 by advancing measures to encourage the use of electric vehicles and clean energy such as wind and solar. In particular, the government has pledged to build 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind in the US by 2030.
While the Obama administration hoped to bring offshore wind farms to California, it was never able to sell leases to commercial companies to build turbines there.
In 2018, the Trump administration took the first steps to allow companies to lease water bodies in central and northern California for wind projects when the Department of the Interior identified three areas for lease agreements, including the waters of Morro Bay and Humboldt Counties. But after Pentagon officials objected, the plan took off.
Mr Biden has sought to unite his cabinet to find ways to promote renewable energy and reduce carbon pollution through what he calls a “state-wide” approach to tackling the climate.
Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s Undersecretary of State, told reporters on a call to the White House: “Combating the climate crisis is a national security imperative. The Department of Defense is determined to “seek throughout the US government solutions that support renewable energy in a way that is compatible with essential military operations. “
Offshore wind developers said the federal government’s coordinated approach to wind farm approval, driven directly by the president along with his top cabinet secretaries and the California governor, appears to have changed the fortunes of wind farms in the Pacific.
During the Trump administration, career-level Interior Department officials approved plans to open up parts of the California coast to wind farms, according to two people familiar with the matter. But the Navy opposed it and Mr. Trump, who is known to ridicule wind power and say turbines kill bald eagles, never campaigned for the project.
“Now there is a strong commitment at the top to make this happen. This is the big break here, ”said Dan Reicher, who served as assistant secretary in the Clinton administration’s Department of Energy and is now an advisor to Magellan Wind, which develops floating offshore turbine projects.
When Magellan first wanted to build floating wind farms in 2012, “there was great skepticism,” said Reicher. However, in the past decade the technology has advanced so far that more and more companies are investing in it, he said.
Still, he said he doesn’t know whether the company he is advising will try to secure leases to build floating wind farms off California.
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