California Energy Commission report on offshore wind

Earlier this month, the California Energy Commission met to talk about its draft report to evaluate and quantify the maximum feasible capacity of offshore wind to achieve reliability, ratepayer, employment, and decarbonization benefits and to set megawatt offshore wind planning goals for 2030 and 2045. 

The California law AB 525 tells CEC to make three interim work products. This report is the first of those three. By the end of this year, the CEC must finish and send in a preliminary assessment of economic benefits related to seaport investments and workforce development needs, as well as a permitting roadmap. 

AB 525's final requirement is that by June 30, 2023, the CEC must work with federal, state, and local agencies, as well as a wide range of stakeholders, to create a strategic plan for offshore wind energy developments built in federal waters off the coast of California and send it to the California Natural Resources Agency and the Legislature.

What's Important in the Off-Shore Wind Report

The CEC set a preliminary planning goal of 3 GW for 2030 and 10-15 GW for 2045, depending on how far technology has come. The CEC made it clear that these are just planning goals and do not set a minimum level of procurement or create procurement requirements. Three gigawatts of power could come from either a full buildout of the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA) or a combination of partial buildouts in the Morro Bay WEA and the Humboldt WEA.

AB 525 says that there must be enough suitable sea space for wind energy in federal waters to meet the planning goals for offshore wind megawatts. But the CEC thinks that finding suitable sea space is a must before figuring out what the maximum feasible capacity is. So, the CEC hasn't decided on a maximum capacity, but it has found that 21.8 GW is the most offshore wind power that is technically possible based on existing studies and literature.

When figuring out the maximum feasible capacity and planning goals, AB 525 also says that the CEC has to think about 12 planning goals. The CEC found that the most important things were:

What the 2021 Joint Agency Report on SB 100 found:

• The need to start planning for long-term transmission and infrastructure to make it easier for Californians to get energy from offshore wind farms.
• The need for reliable renewable energy that can handle the changing peak loads in California.
• The profile of how much electricity offshore wind off the coast of California makes.
• Possible effects on coastal resources, fisheries, Native American and Indigenous people, and national security, as well as ways to deal with these effects.
• The CEC found that all of these things support the development of offshore wind, but it did say that there are still a lot of questions about what needs to be done to protect coastal resources, fisheries, and Native American and Indigenous people.

The CEC also found that offshore wind usually works well with other types of renewable energy, but that transmission upgrades will be needed to reach the full planning levels. The CEC said that in March 2022, the ISO Board approved a 10-year plan for transmission that included 23 projects to strengthen the system and help the state meet its clean energy goals. The ISO says that the current transmission system in the central coast area can handle 5 to 6 GW of offshore wind, including 1.6 GW from the Humboldt WEA and 2.3 GW from the Morro Bay WEA.

Most of the comments from the public at the meeting were positive and in favor of building floating offshore wind. You can send in more comments and feedback until May 23, 2022. At the CEC Business Meeting on May 24, new comments and the revised draft will be looked at. The report should be approved before the June 1 deadline.