Forum to Discuss Offshore Wind Farms

A lot of air has been blowing around SLO County since the possibility of putting in offshore wind energy farms surfaced several years ago. And the public will have a chance to hear what’s been going on directly from Uncle Sam.
Representatives with the U.S. Department of Interior’s, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management or BOEM, and the State of California will discuss current planning activities for possible offshore wind development off California during a public meeting set for 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 13 at the County Board of Supervisors’ Chambers in the County Government Center, corner of Santa Rosa and Monterey streets in Downtown SLO.
County Supervisors, Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill will host the meeting.
In October 2015, the agencies combined efforts to review projects under the “BOEM California Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force,” including Federal, State, local agencies and Native American tribal governments, to “provide information to the decision-making process for planning future offshore renewable energy development in federal waters offshore California,” reads a news release from the Task Force.
BOEM and the State are gathering environmental information and ocean use data for the entire Coast of California to “inform the offshore wind planning process” and since the waters off SLO County, in particular off Cayucos and Morro Bay have been named in one permit application, initial emphasis is being focused here.
The Central Coast is considered to have “viable wind energy resources, current commercial interest by offshore wind developers, and available existing transmission infrastructure.”
In the past, this meant the closed Morro Bay Power Plant and its access to the state’s electric grid. But the situation may have changed, after last year’s announcement by PG&E that Diablo Canyon will close in 2025, that site also has access to the grid.
Trident Energy has an application before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC to lease some 56 square miles of ocean, for a 650-1,000 megawatt wind farm, in water 2,600-3,000 feet deep and some 26 miles off Point Estero (north of Cayucos)
Trident has approached the City about its project and the City was supportive if noncommittal.
When Trident approached BOEM, the government decided to put out a request for proposals to gauge interest, and got a response from Statoil, a Norwegian-based oil and gas giant that does business in more than 30 nations in Europe, North America, Africa and Brazil.
The City controls the power plant’s outfall canal that empties at the base of Morro Rock. That facility is a logical landing spot to bring ashore whatever energy is produced — by wind or wave — via cables and into the power plant, connecting to a switchyard at the rear of the plant. The City could get revenue from a new outfall lease agreement, should any of these plans come to fruition and seek to use the canal and underground tunnel that transects the dunes.
But no agreements between the City and Trident or any other company have been reached at this time, and Power plant owner, Dynegy, Inc., gave up the outfall lease, which was costing it some $750,000 a year ($500,000 to City Hall and $250,000 to the harbor department).
Dynegy has also discussed a possible offshore, wave energy farm using large buoys moored somewhere offshore, even seeking a permit for a test project to install a single buoy, but nothing’s ever come of that either. Also, Dynegy has been listing the power plant property for sale for a few years now, along with the company’s other California properties.
In preliminary planning documents as part of the City’s ongoing general plan and local coastal program (GP/LCP) update, the roughly 117-acre power plant property is being proposed to have its zoning changed to a “mixed use” designation from “industrial,” with the idea being to keep options open for any future redevelopment proposals.
No matter what zoning is eventually placed on the prime, bay front property, any redevelopment proposal will have to undergo a full master-planning process, including approvals by both the City and the Coastal Commission.
click here to view map: NEWS offshr wnd frm MAPTrident Project
For more information on the Task Force, see: www.boem.gov/California.
By Neil Farrell