RWE Renewables and other winners of BOEM’s recent auction of floating offshore wind site leases off California have begun outlining plans for their proposed projects.
RWE Renewables, Equinor and Ocean Winds are among the five developers to have pledged $750m between them to secure leases for floating wind projects.
RWE’s awarded site (Lease Area OCS-P 0561, for $157.7m) is 45 km offshore in the Humboldt Bay off the north coast of California and has water depths of 723 metres.
The lease area has the potential to host up to 1.6GW of capacity and the project is expected to be in operation by the mid-2030s contingent upon the permitting timeline.
The next step in project development for RWE is to perform offshore studies that will provide key information to determine project design and submit applications required for federal, state, and local permits.
RWE will continue to engage with local tribes, the fishing industry, and ocean users; engage with the domestic supply chain to create new local jobs and private investment; collaborate with labour on workforce training programs; and establish community benefits agreements with fisheries and local communities.
Sam Eaton, Executive Vice President Offshore Development Americas, RWE Renewables, said: “California is a natural next frontier for offshore wind development, not only in the US market, but globally.
“We look forward to working together with the state of California and local communities to make meaningful investments that set the region up for long-term success.”
Ocean Winds (OW) and CPP Investments’ newly formed 50:50 offshore wind joint venture Golden State Wind was awarded a lease area (OCS-P 0564, for $150.3m) off Morro Bay for up to 2GW.
As part of Golden State Wind’s winning bid, OW and CPP Investments have committed to investing $30m in workforce development and supply chain initiatives and to work closely with local stakeholders to maximize the benefits to California from the emerging offshore wind industry.
Michael Brown, the CEO of Ocean Winds North America, said: “OW is a pioneer of floating offshore wind technology – with nearly 3.7GW of floating wind projects in development or operations in Portugal, France, South Korea, and the UK – and we are ready to bring our expertise to the US as well.”
With a bid of $130m, Equinor secured a 2GW lease in the Morro Bay area. The site is more than 85 km at sea from the coastal town of Cambria in Southern California.
“We were among the first movers into US offshore wind and are now one of the first movers into California, a market we believe will become a strategic floating market globally.
“We now have the scale needed to optimize value across our US and Asia-Pacific portfolio,” said Pål Eitrheim, executive vice president of Renewables in Equinor.
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) through its fund CI IV and its affiliate California North Floating has been announced as the provisional winner of lease area OCS-P 0562.
CIP Senior Partner Torsten Smed said: “By adding the new lease area to our portfolio and based on our large global portfolio of floating offshore projects in different stages of development we are uniquely positioned to lead the commercialisation of floating offshore wind in the US.”