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LOS ANGELES – California's aggressive pursuit of a fully renewable energy grid is moving in a new direction: offshore.
On Friday, the Federal Ministry of the Interior took the first steps to allow companies to lease water in central and northern California for wind projects. If all goes as regulators and utilities state, floating turbines could start producing power in six years.
Until now, these ambitions were excluded because of the depths of the Pacific near its coasts, which made it difficult to anchor huge towers that support massive wind turbines. "They would be in much deeper waters than anything that has been built in the world so far," said Karen Douglas, a member of the California Energy Commission.
Several candidates are expected, equipped with a new technology already tested in Europe.
California's determination to fully rely on The carbon-free electricity by 2045, imposed by a bill signed by Governor Jerry Brown in September, forces the state to look beyond solar energy and onshore wind farms to achieve its goal.
"We are at the beginning of the process here," said Douglas, "but offshore wind has the potential to help meet our renewable energy goals.
The potential benefits of offshore wind development are not without drawbacks, however, and will almost certainly not come without conflict. Development along the California coast has long been a sensitive and highly regulated subject. As has happened elsewhere, there will surely be objections from those who feel that their view of the ocean is being spoiled. And the potential impact on birds, fisheries and marine mammals will be closely examined.
California would not be the first place to develop floating wind turbines in the United States. The University of Maine, with $ 40 million from the Department of Energy, has designed its own floating wind platform and produced a test version that it plans to develop as a commercial project to power from 8,000 to 14,000. 000 homes by 2021.
But California is a particularly good place for such a project, given the length of its coastline and the size of its population. And the coast offers an added benefit: the winds over the ocean tend to become stronger as the sun goes down, just when solar energy is being brought in for the day.
"California has a very good offshore wind," said Walt Musial, Senior Engineer and Director of Offshore Wind Efforts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, part of the Interior Department, has identified three areas for rent: a plot off Humboldt County in northern California and two sites in Morro Bay, on the central coast, near Hearst Castle and Diablo Canyon. of the last nuclear power plant in state operation.
Offshore wind projects in California will take advantage of existing power lines to reduce costs. Several power plants along the coast have been shut down or will be decommissioned due to pollution and other environmental problems. And power lines on the west side of the state are less congested than those on the east side.
In addition to federal reviews, wind projects must be licensed by several state agencies, including the California Coastal Commission, to have an impact on federal and state waters; the California State Lands Commission; and the Department of Fish and Wildlife because of concerns about protected species.
Wind farms are expected to be about 15 to 30 miles from the coast, making them less visible from the land and less dangerous for seals and migratory birds.
But even at this distance, other marine species could be threatened, including seabirds and whales migrating through the canals. In addition to towers several hundred feet high, there would be currents of cables connecting the wind turbines to the power grid on the ground.
"I would have questions about whether these cables would mean that whales would not use the area in the same way," said Francine Kershaw, marine mammal scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which supports the 39, wind energy, including offshore development. "But collisions with seabirds are probably the main concern."
It will depend a lot on the size of the projects. Proposals are expected from the Redwood Coast Energy Authority of Humboldt County, which is seeking developers for 10 to 15 floating wind farms that can help it fulfill its mandate to emit less carbon dioxide. carbon.
Redwood Coast, a government-run utility serving 60,000 customers in a predominantly rural area, expects to spend about $ 500 million on the wind farm.
"This level of production would be an important part of our energy load," said Matthew Marshall, executive director of Redwood Coast. "Offshore wind is really the big untapped resource."
California embarked on the development of offshore wind two years ago when the governor formed a task force of federal and state officials. Floating wind turbine demonstration projects off the Norwegian and Danish coasts, as well as a small fleet of five wind turbines in Scotland's waters, have helped California's efforts.
Equinor, the Norwegian energy company formerly known as Statoil, completed the project in Scotland, still in the demonstration phase. It consists of five large turbines on a platform called spar – a vertical buoy floating like those used in the oil industry.
"California is one of the places we want to work," said Elin Isaksen, spokesperson for Renewable Energy at Equinor.
Equinor had previously acquired a federal lease on approximately 80,000 acres off Long Island in New York and is currently working on a $ 3 billion project to supply one million homes. His winning bid for the lease was $ 42 million.
Trident Winds is another potential candidate for leases in California. He wants to build a 100-unit wind farm on the central coast through a partnership called Castle Wind. Another example is Magellan Wind, which is working with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, a Danish investment company engaged in a wind project off the coast of Massachusetts.
Henrik Stiesdal, a Danish wind energy developer working with the Magellan group, said that up to now, offshore wind has been confined to areas such as the North Sea and China, with some coastal waters close to population centers. "But many places in the world do not have this blessing," he said.
He said the lesson from the offshore and onshore wind industries was that the ability to mass-produce equipment was a key factor in reducing costs. His design will do so, he says, with components made in a turbine tower plant, shipped to a port and then assembled.
Mr. Musial of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory stated that such projects would have the same economic characteristics as those in shallower waters.
"If we look at the cost breakdown structures of a floating project or a fixed-bottom project, they use a lot of identical components," he said. "There is no important element that makes navigation more expensive. In fact, some elements could make navigation less expensive. "
Dan Reicher, a former Energy Department official who has been a consultant to Magellan, said he thought California was launching one of its biggest initiatives in the field. development of clean energy.
"In California, we are not used to falling behind other states in renewable energy," said Reicher. "This is the case with offshore wind. I think all of this will change with these floating systems. "
The Office of Ocean Energy Management will receive public comments over the next 100 days. If all regulatory hurdles are lifted, leases could be signed within 18 months.
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