The December federal auction of offshore wind leases off California's coast promises to spark a boom in construction.
The first nacelles onboard a sea energy"jack-up ship," ready for lifting into place on the Kentish Flats Offshore Wind Farm, off Whitstable, Kent, England.Chris Laurens/Construction Photography/ Avalon / Getty Images
"The work starts now," said Jeff Hunerlach, a building trades union leader based in Humboldt County after energy companies and joint ventures committed a total of $757 million to develop five floating wind farms clustered into two swaths of open ocean off Humboldt and Morro Bay. At the Humboldt port, Hunerlach anticipates hundreds of union workers will be employed during construction, with additional permanent jobs once the facility is running. Statewide, he expects the number of jobs created to support the new industry will be in the"tens of thousands."
"When we focused in on the floating offshore wind space, California's option really put the U.S. right at the forefront," Eaton said."It's one of the first to hit the kind of scale that we're talking about and sets up the Western part of the country extremely well to be a hub for the industry globally."While offshore wind power is a significant component of energy industries in Europe and Asia, just a handful of turbines are currently generating power in the U.S.
"We're going to throw billions of dollars into something that we don't really know what the impact is going to be," said Dick Ogg, a commercial fisherman of crab, albacore, black cod and rockfish. He's based out of Bodega Bay but he chases salmon from the state's north coast south to Morro Bay, which is another quiet part of California where an infrastructure boom is planned to get electricity from offshore wind turbines to land-based power customers.
Myers said the worst impacts would be visual impacts from sacred high country, particularly at night during ceremonies that include prayers. He said the tribe also worries about unknown effects of rapid development in what has long been a quiet region. "There are several companies working to develop wave energy," Jenkins said."It's very difficult to build things that can survive the pummeling of West Coast waves."State renewable energy mandates in California and elsewhere have for years spurred planning of offshore wind farming, with the goal of replacing power plants that generate the pollution responsible for climate change.
"Floating platforms are going through a period of great innovation," said Stephanie McClellan, executive director of the recently formed nonprofit, which aims to accelerate the buildout of offshore wind farms nationally. Gas-and-oil drillers already use floating turbines, and some of those designs are being adapted for wind farming.
Because the turbines will be so far out to sea, there would be fewer threats of turbine blades striking land-based birds and bats, Copping said. Tethering platforms to the seafloor should also cause fewer harms than the installation of towers, which require extensive pile driving that can harm whales and other wildlife by creating underwater booms.