The live, online auction for the five leases three off California's central coast and two off its northern coast - has attracted strong interest and 43 companies from around the world are approved to bid. The wind turbines will float roughly 25 miles offshore.
The growth of offshore wind comes as climate change intensifies and need for clean energy grows. It also is getting cheaper. The cost of developing offshore wind has dropped 60% since 2010 according to a July report by the International Renewable Energy Agency. It declined 13% in 2021 alone.
Offshore wind is well established in the U.K. and some other countries but is just beginning to ramp up off America's coasts, and this is the nation's first foray into floating wind turbines. Auctions so far have been for those anchored to the seafloor.
Europe has some floating offshore wind - a project in the North Sea has been operating since 2017 - but the potential for the technology is huge in areas of strong wind off America's coasts, said Josh Kaplowitz, vice president of offshore wind at the American Clean Power Association.
"We know that this works. We know that this can provide a huge slice of our our electricity needs, and if we're going to solve the climate crisis we need to put as many clean electrons online as we can, particularly given increases in load demand with electric vehicles," he said. "We can reach our greenhouse gas goals only with offshore wind as part of the puzzle."
Similar auctions are in the works off Oregon's coast next year and in the Gulf of Maine in 2024. President Joe Biden set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 using traditional technology that secures wind turbines to the ocean floor, enough to power 10 million homes. Then the administration announced plans in September to develop floating platforms that could vastly expand offshore wind in the United States.
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