German EnBW will develop an offshore wind project off the coast of Central California. Namely, EnBW and Trident Winds will create a 650-1,000 megawatt ‘Morro Bay’ wind farm with a grid connection in Morro Bay.
The two companies will develop the first large-scale floating offshore wind project in the region. The focus of the joint venture is to obtain the site lease from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and then secure the grid connection which became available after the shutdown of the Morro Bay power plant.
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California has some of ambitious climate and renewable energy goals in the country. For this reason, offshore wind will play an important role in California over the next decade.
Offshore wind projects in the US have increased in recent years. In 2015 the US Department of Energy published a wind study, which contemplates 22 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy deployment by 2030 and 86 GW by 2050.
In addition, the first offshore wind farm is now in operation, while the states of Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and New Jersey have set out specific targets for offshore wind development. This targets aim to up to 8 GW of offshore wind to be in operation by 2030.
