SLO offshore wind development public information session to be held in November - KSBY News
SLO offshore wind development public information session to be held
A public information session on offshore wind development along the San Luis Obispo coast will be held in November, according to local lawmakers.
The session will include industry experts along with local officials who will provide information on the development of offshore wind in the area as well as the impact it will have along the coast. The session will also include time for public comment.
The event will be held on Nov. 1 at 4 p.m. in the San Luis Obispo County Government Center. Those who are unable to attend in-person can attend virtually. A link to the virtual session will be provided at a later date, officials said.
"Offshore wind is coming to the Central Coast, and this is a really big deal. It's a profound step towards a green energy future for the state and will serve as a model for the globe,” said State Senator John Laird. “Understandably, however, the residents of San Luis Obispo County have a lot of questions, including whether the turbines really will spin by 2030 and what kind of benefits -- and impacts -- this new technology may bring. The purpose of this information session is to begin to get those questions answered, and I encourage the community to join us on November 1st.”
Those in attendance will include Cal Poly, California Energy Commission, California Coastal Commission, SLO County Supervisors Bruce Gibson and Dawn Ortiz-Legg and Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.