BOEM advances Trident Winds floating offshore lease request

BOEM received the request from Trident on 14 January, the first formal interest from any developer in obtaining a wind lease off California.

Seattle-based Trident is proposing a $3.23bn, 765MW nameplate capacity project consisting of about 100 floating foundations that could each support a turbine up to 8MW.  A single seafloor transmission cable would bring the electricity to shore.

The proposal may be expanded to generate 1GW at a later date, if additional transmission capacity and market off-take can be obtained.

The project would be located about 33 nautical miles northwest of Morro Bay in water depths of 2,600‐3,300 feet (792-1,006 meters). The proposed lease area is 67,963 acres (275sq km).

There is a consistent wind resource of 8.5 m/sec in the proposed site location. Based on 27 years of data from a buoy in the vicinity, the expected energy generation from the offshore resource could surpass 50% capacity factors, according to Trident.

“Today’s announcement marks an important step in facilitating the responsible development of clean offshore energy to power homes and businesses in the Golden State,” says BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper. “BOEM will work closely with the state of California, industry and a broad range of stakeholders to ensure that our leasing process is conducted in a thoughtful, engaged, and transparent manner.”

Trident co-founder Alla Weinstein was formerly chief executive and president of Principle Power, a US floating wind specialist that markets innovative semi-submersible, three-column pontoon design foundations.

In its lease request, Trident provides a list of prospective partners and project participants. They include Bodington & Company, investment bankers for the electric power industry; City of Morro Bay; DP Energy, renewable energy project developers; Enpower, energy facility management services; Forristall Ocean Engineering;  Herrera Environmental Consultants; National Renewable Enrgy Laboratory; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Quanta Services, a specialized contracting firm.

As part of its review, BOEM confirmed that Trident Winds is legally, technically, and financially qualified to hold an offshore wind energy lease in federal waters.

If the agency, part of the US Department of Energy, finds there is competitive interest in the area sought by Trident, it will initiate the competitive leasing process. If not, there is a process for awarding a lease directly to a developer.

The so-called Federal Register Notice that BOEM expects to issue this summer will also include a request for the public and interested stakeholders to comment and provide information on site conditions, commercial, military or other uses of the area and potential impacts of the proposed project.

The possibility of floating wind next decade and beyond along the west coast of the US holds enormous growth potential for the nascent offshore sector, whose focus has been almost exclusively on shallow Atlantic coastal waters from Massachusetts to North Carolina.

That makes it easier to use available ocean floor-mounted technology, whereas the continental shelf drops off rapidly near shore along California, Oregon and Washington State.

Until Trident came along, there has been little firm talk about possible commercial wind projects off California, where elected officials led by Governor Jerry Brown and power industry regulators have favored development of utility-scale solar, onshore wind and to a lesser extent, geothermal.

That changed after the state’s move to increase its renewable mandate to 50% by the end of 2030 from 33% by 31 December 2020, although it remains to be seen how much support offshore wind development will generate from electric utilities, environmental groups, politicians and regulators.