Giant ocean wind farms are essential to California's clean power goal. But it’s a big experiment — no one knows how they will transform the North Coast.
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Now, once again, the siren call of capturing the North Coast’s natural resources beckons dreamers and speculators, this time the treasure lies far off the rugged coast of Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Its promise: The Pacific Ocean — which feeds us, modulates our weather and delivers our goods — will provide clean, renewable energy from its powerful winds.
The depth, distance from shore and new floating technology drive up the costs and complicate an already expansive process. Massive infusions of private and public money will be needed. And it likely will be a decade or longer before any major wind farms off California begin to produce power: The companies will spend up to five years preparing technical plans and analyzing environmental impacts of each project.
Energy companies will need hundreds of millions of dollars in state subsidies or bonds to assist with the extreme costs of construction and operation. Each wind farm could cost about $5 billion to develop, construct and assemble. Local communities will bear social costs and strains on infrastructure, such as higher housing costs and utility upgrades.
“There's a great deal of uncertainty in all aspects of planning of offshore wind,” said Kate Huckelbridge, executive director of the Coastal Commission, which has legal jurisdiction from the sea to the sand and will handle much of the analysis and permitting. Left: A rundown sawmill on the Samoa Peninsula near Eureka. Right: A pulp mill just outside of Eureka. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
Adair is clear-eyed about the region’s role as host to what will be a sudden and massive development, with more lease areas expected to follow. Scott Adair, Humboldt County’s director of economic development, is concerned about the uncertainties that the region faces with offshore wind development. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
Phillip Williams, a member of the Yurok Tribal Council, is concerned about what the offshore wind turbines could mean for the tribe's environment and economy. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local“Everybody's lining up. It's almost like there's a predator. ‘Okay, these guys are weak. We can come in here and take advantage of this community that’s this desperate for dollars, because they've already depleted all their natural resources.
How can the community embrace the opportunity without allowing the potential growth to drive up the cost of living and housing or over-tax community services? Adair said the local government’s capacity to administer even a slice of the wind energy bureaucracy is limited.The county is already short 3,000 housing units, and he doesn’t know where the skilled workers will come from in a region that he estimates has only 100 master electricians.
If getting wind power to market in California just meant bringing electrons to shore, it would be a massively ambitious undertaking requiring technology that in some cases has yet to be developed. But the effort is further complicated by what’s required once the power hits land — much of the means to move it does not now exist.
And interest from companies in building the projects has been unpredictable. Last month, a federal lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico garnered a tepid response. Only one of three areas was bid upon and the bid-per-acre was just $55, compared to anGiven the capital risks, the floating offshore wind industry expects government help. And it’s getting it.research and development, various tax incentives and assistance to build this new industry.
Wind developers lobbied hard for the legislation this year. Sam Eaton, chief executive officer of RWE Offshore Holdings, which holds one of the leases off Humboldt, said having California as an assured buyer for future wind power shows the state’s long-term support for the industry. “This is just like the bullet train. We are just going to do it because, by golly, we are just going to do it,” he said. “We are going to pass on the cost to the ratepayers and we have the highest electric bills in the nation. This is going to break the state.” Ports will play a significant, as-yet unfilled role in supporting offshore wind, to assemble the platforms and maintain service fleets and vast repair yards.
“It’s assumed that there’s going to be public funds,” Cordero said. “This requires a collaborative effort. It is a long-term endeavor. At the pace we’re going, all the levers have to be pulled.” Eureka’s harbor and marina will need to undergo significant expansion to support offshore wind development. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
Another hurdle for ports: Federal law requires any vessel delivering goods or people from one U.S. site to another to be built, owned and primarily crewed by U.S. citizens. The number of compliant ships available to do the job is minuscule: ARob Holmlund, director of development of Humboldt Bay Harbor, thinks that offshore wind projects would revitalize the harbor.
Because of an eight-to-10-year lead time to construct transmission projects, the new power may wait at the shoreline while the“It requires significant new infrastructure. Not just wires, but substations and towers and transformers,” said Himali Parmar, an interconnection and transmission expert at the consulting firm ICF International, Inc. “There are massive goals to meet and transmission is a big part of the puzzle.
The wind projects “have the potential to adversely affect fishing and fishermen through exclusion and displacement from fishing grounds, increase costs and time at sea to reach new fishing grounds, loss of future fishing grounds and loss or disruption of harbor space and fishing infrastructure at ports,” according to a Coastal Commission
There’s also a potential flip side: Fish populations could increase if fishing declines, and the permanent structures in the sea could provide habitat for more and different species, marine biologists say. Left: Bates on his fishing boat in the marina. Right: Fishing and recreational boats in the harbor. Photos by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
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