California’s first offshore wind project CADEMO has executed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with California Community Power (CC Power), to facilitate the advancement of the 50MW scheme.
The demonstration site will be located off the coast of Vandenberg Space Force Base, near Lompoc, in California state waters.
It is targeting a commercial operation date in 2028, which would position it to come online several years ahead of other planned offshore wind projects in federally leased waters off the California coast, CADEMO said.
The scheme is expected to include four turbines and will produce about 200GWh/year of renewable energy.
CADEMO has conducted extensive engagement with local tribes, labour unions and workforce development agencies.
Through the MoU engagement, CC Power aims to learn about the drivers of key costs in offshore wind development to build support for appropriate policies that balance local investment, jobs and community considerations, greater renewable energy penetration, and electricity affordability.
CC Power and CADEMO anticipate, in collaboration with the former’s CCA members, engaging with local communities to ensure the project “gets built right” by facilitating community stakeholder sessions and acknowledging and integrating the perspectives of various local community members into the site’s development.
CC Power and CADEMO endeavour to apply for grants, incentives, and other support to minimize the cost of offtake from the scheme while maximizing the value of its power output.
These efforts comprise a roadmap intended to drive the parties toward the potential for a PPA between them, with the energy benefits and costs flowing to the participating CC Power member CCAs.
CC Power general manager Alex Morris said: “We are excited to embark on this journey with CADEMO.
“This MOU marks an important step in CC Power’s efforts to support the rational development of floating offshore wind in California as an additional power generation resource that our CCA members can rely upon to provide clean, renewable energy and capacity benefits to serve their customers.
“The CADEMO project serves as a useful test case for how to build offshore wind projects on the West Coast and is unique in how soon it may be able to begin delivering power and development learnings to the power sector here in California, with its potential 2028 commercial operation date.
“CC Power is proud to play an influential role in supporting California’s ambitions for offshore wind development.”
CADEMO director Mikael Jakobsson added: “This MoU is an important step in the introduction of offshore wind in California, and we are very pleased to have reached this step with CC Power.
“As California and the nation rely increasingly on renewable energy to reach their climate goals, they urgently need first-mover information to guide the launch of offshore wind.
“The CADEMO project will provide this information roughly five years ahead of any larger-scale offshore wind development.
“This will help offshore wind gain greater public acceptance and will resolve many practical challenges to help launch our sector and create new California jobs.”