Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Another California First: Floating Wind System Proposed Off Morrow Bay

Renewable Energy World: In January, officials at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) received an unsolicited proposal for a major project. The plan — to build 100 floating wind turbines in the Pacific Ocean, 35 miles off the coast of Morrow Bay, and send 650 MW of power via undersea cable to an existing utility connection at Morrow Bay, about half-way between Los Angeles and San Francisco. The estimated cost of the project was $3.2 billion.

The proposal came from Trident Winds (TW) LLC, a Seattle-based company founded in 2015 with a focus on deepwater offshore wind project development. TW leads a consortium that includes private sector energy and engineering companies as well as public sector partners, including two major U.S. national labs — National Renewable Energy Lab and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

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