The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District is seeking engagement from companies interested in participating in the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal project in California.
The scheme will support the emerging floating wind industry off the US west coast.
The terminal will be built in Humboldt Bay.
Based on the type and level of interest received during the Solicitation of Interest (SoI) process, the district may further engage with interested parties as appropriate.
On 23 January 2024, the United States Department of Transportation announced the district will receive $426.7m for the construction and maintenance of the terminal project through the department’s Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects (INFRA) grant programme.
The INFRA funding anticipates the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District will provide matching money from other sources, which could be fulfilled through additional funding from the state of California, private equity, partner developers, or other qualifying sources.
The project is proposed to redevelop underutilised industrial lands surrounding Humboldt Bay and improvements to in-bay and upland infrastructure.
The terminal is anticipated to provide numerous benefits to the local community, state and nation including economic benefits include indirect and direct job creation, improved standard of living and an increased tax base.
It will involve the clean-up of contamination, debris and derelict buildings at sites that were essentially abandoned with the slowdown of the wood product industry, including locations where there were pulp mills, sawmills and wood product export facilities.
The project will facilitate renewable energy development directly onsite through solar energy generation and indirectly offsite by supporting offshore wind energy generation.