RCEA Submits Lease Application for Northern California Offshore Wind Energy Project

This is a press release from Redwood Coast Energy Authority:

EUREKA, California – The Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA), with support from a consortium of private companies, has submitted a lease application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to advance the development of an offshore wind energy project off the coast of Humboldt County, in Northern California. The 100-150 megawatt (MW) floating offshore wind farm is planned to be located more than 20 miles off the coast of Eureka.

RCEA and the consortium, which includes Principle Power Inc., EDPR Offshore North America LLC, and Aker Solutions Inc., have been working with members of the community since 2017 to explore and develop the offshore wind potential of Humboldt County. RCEA initiated a competitive process earlier this year and selected the consortium to enter into a public-private partnership to pursue the development of the proposed project. Since its founding in 2003, RCEA, a local government joint powers agency, has provided an array of energy services to Humboldt County residents and businesses.

In recent months, RCEA has done an increasing amount of community outreach – informing the public and commercial interests, gathering feedback, and listening to and incorporating the concerns and desires of the region – to form the basis for the lease application submitted to BOEM.  The project is expected to bring significant economic benefits to the region in the form of jobs and increased spending in the local community and State of California. A longer-term goal of the project is for Humboldt Bay to become a central hub of a US west coast offshore wind industry.

“Humboldt County has much to gain by harnessing our offshore wind power potential,” said County Supervisor and RCEA board member Estelle Fennell. “Coastal resiliency, local jobs, increased investments in economic development, manufacturing, protecting wildlife and future generations of Humboldt County. The State of California set ambitious goals this week by signing Senate Bill 100, reaching for carbon neutrality and 100% clean electricity by 2045. We are at the very beginning of a multi-year process, but so far, the response from the public has been positive. Humboldt County has a long history of innovative leadership when it comes to renewable energy solutions.”

RCEA’s work with the Humboldt community, state and federal agencies, and others has generated an overall positive response to the proposed project and sets the framework for successfully delivering clean energy to local ratepayers at a competitive cost, under an efficient, locally driven and guided development philosophy.  RCEA and the consortium will continue to focus on community and stakeholder outreach during this multi-year process to understand and address potential concerns.

Donna Wright, Executive Director of the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce, said “the Chamber supports economic development opportunities with offshore wind and clean energy and supports efforts to keep Humboldt County and California competitive in this growing industry. Business plays a key role in community leadership and by working with RCEA and their consortium we want the community to know that we are committed to supporting policies and advocating for programs that promote economic, environmental and community sustainability.”

RCEA and its project partners engaged in a systematic, comprehensive process to determine a location for the Humboldt offshore site that minimizes impacts to the environment and communities, including commercial fishing, that are active offshore.  Based on this interactive process, the proposed lease area will support selecting a final project site for an expected 10-15 turbines that avoids or minimizes impacts on marine navigation corridors, major commercial fishing areas, and environmental resources.

RCEA‘s project partners bring the expertise needed to develop, finance, and operate projects as well as build an offshore wind energy supply chain.  The complementary capabilities of Principle Power, EDPR, and Aker Solutions bring the long-term commitment needed for a successful project.  RCEA and its consortium of development partners are working to bring the project online in 2024, which will help unlock the extraordinary value of offshore wind energy for California.

“We wanted a project of this magnitude to move forward with the local community having a strong role throughout the process,” added Matthew Marshall, Executive Director at RCEA. “We are extremely excited that we’ve been able to partner with such a highly-capable and experienced team of companies that are committed to that vision of a community-led project.”

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

11 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Grasshopper
Guest
Grasshopper
5 years ago

This whole idea will need i’am guessing around 50 more agencies and 1 billion or 2 dollars before calif. Shoots it down are Tax dollars hard at work… 7th largest economy in the world what a crock. It’s all about the rich. The poor hear realates to ethopia. I’am in my 60’s i’ve been taxed to death have nothing but my pride

Anti troll league
Guest
Anti troll league
5 years ago
Reply to  Grasshopper

That remark is so unnecessary, mean and small minded as to be an embarrassment to read. Hopefully Kym will remove it.

cat fan
Guest
cat fan
5 years ago

God knows one thing we have plenty of here nearly every single day is wind, and also hot air!

hmm
Guest
hmm
5 years ago

How are they going to keep the windmills from killing birds?

B.
Guest
B.
5 years ago
Reply to  hmm

Wind Turbines kill birds. So do other human activities. As a guide:
http://www.sibleyguides.com/conservation/causes-of-bird-mortality/

So, in order of number of bird deaths, lets be clear where the biggest threats are:
Window Strikes- the greatest cause of bird deaths
Cats-
Communications Towers- your cell service is killing birds
Electrical Lines- both by impact and for larger birds electrocution
Pesticides
Cars
Wind Turbines- increasing as we build more
Hunting

But the biggest is habitat loss. Our consumption, our population, our earth moving equipment, our global climate change and micro climate change are all killing (or preventing from ever being hatched) uncountable numbers of birds.
I’m in favor of eliminating all of those except the windows. How about you?

antichrist
Guest
antichrist
5 years ago
Reply to  B.

and please explain why 30 years after a windfarm has been inactive they still cant get anything to grow in thw geound ? wind is bs with modern hyrdo carbon plastics and lubercatants. much more effective are the wave bouies for generating power less carbon footprint longer life span with a lower opperation cost.then there are also the channel tide generators that uses the water flow of the tides to create power by spinning a fan connected to a stator. but hey go ahead and destory views and risk spilling oils into our ocean so you can jave a floating windfarm …………

Elric of Melniboné
Guest
Elric of Melniboné
5 years ago
Reply to  antichrist

ah totely agree. them lubercatants aint neerly as good as bouies for generactin power.

Grasshopper
Guest
Grasshopper
5 years ago

Tqm how do you spell that ?genius!

TQM
Guest
TQM
5 years ago
Reply to  Grasshopper

Literate or illiterate? You choose.

nines
Guest
5 years ago

This is an awful idea.

Beside more pressure to make the roads wider and straighter for heavy industry and shipments to box stores, there are definitely the environmental concerns, and the bird slaughter to take into account.

Also the facts about our energy costs on TOP of the tax burden:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/09/california-climate-change-policy-hits-poor-residents-hardest/

which are shrinking us old people into little dried up peas already.

Then, you might want to consider that the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is turning out to be a boon for our forests and farmers:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth

and that if we don’t start thinking this stuff through instead of letting our mental conditioning stay on autopilot, we will just be adding more despicable messes than we’re already in and calling it “green”.

t n
Guest
t n
5 years ago
Reply to  nines

Windmills , Pollute less than Pot Farms, Pollute less than Electric Generators,
Harm the Environment less than Fishing,and Logging
All the Above Pollute Our Oceans

Let’s Hope the Birds can Adapt

‘ DARWIN’