California Ports Forge Partnership to Advance Floating Offshore Wind

The California State Lands Commission and the ports of Long Beach and Humboldt have joined forces to advance floating offshore wind development off the California coast.

Through this collaboration, they aim to develop critical port infrastructure for wind turbine assembly, with installations planned 20-30 miles offshore Humboldt County and Morro Bay.

“This important agreement parlays the foundations of offshore wind energy development—environmental protection, equity, public engagement, and the economy—into a partnership that leads the way toward a clean energy future,” said State Controller and Commission Chair Malia M. Cohen.

The Commission and ports will also collaborate to align staging and integration site development with broader offshore wind considerations, such as transmission, power purchasing, workforce development, manufacturing, and other supply chain developments, science and technology innovations, and sea space leasing.

The ports have been identified in the California Energy Commission’s Offshore Wind Strategic Plan as key sites necessary for the deployment of floating offshore wind in California.

The plan outlines analysis and strategies to deploy floating turbines off California’s central and northern coasts with a planning goal of 25 GW of capacity by 2045, enough to power 25 million homes.

“This agreement, combined with the climate bond recently approved by California voters and the state’s commitment to procure up to 7.6 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind by 2035, gives the industry and California ports the confidence to invest in Pier Wind and other complementary projects and create thousands of good-paying jobs,” said Mario Corder, Port of Long Beach CEO.

In 2023, the Port of Long Beach unveiled plans to build a floating offshore wind facility, known as Pier Wind, that would support the manufacture and assembly of wind turbines.

The offshore wind facility would span up to 400 acres of newly built land located southwest of the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge within the Harbor District.

At the beginning of this year, the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District announced that it would receive USD 426.7 million to build a terminal that will service the construction and maintenance of floating offshore wind farms.

The Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind MVP project will involve the construction of a modern marine terminal primarily for the transport, import, staging, preassembly, final assembly, launch, in-water construction, and long-term maintenance of floating offshore wind turbines in the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District.

Back in December 2022, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) selected the winners of California’s first offshore wind lease sale.

RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, Equinor Wind US, Invenergy California Offshore, California North Floating (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners), and Central California Offshore Wind (Ocean Winds) won the rights to develop floating wind projects across five lease areas in Humboldt Bay and Morro Bay, off the northern and central coasts of California, respectively. The five areas have an installation capacity of around 4.5 GW.

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