Wind energy company to hold forum on potential project in Morro Bay

Officials from a Seattle-based wind energy company are scheduled to make a presentation and answer questions about their potential wind energy project off the Morro Bay coast at a public meeting Thursday.

Representatives from the company, Trident Winds, will present their ideas at the forum, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building at 209 Surf St. in Morro Bay. Local business management consultant Don Maruska will facilitate the discussion.

Trident officials hope to install about 100 floating wind turbines, tethered to the ocean floor, about 20 miles offshore. The company is in the initial planning and outreach phases of the project and hasn’t received any permits.

The idea of the meeting is for the company to be “very transparent” and to answer any questions that the public and stakeholders may have, co-founder Alla Weinstein said.

Trident intends to use the city’s outfall facility at the northeast side of Morro Rock as an access point to hook up to the PG&E substation at the shuttered Morro Bay Power Plant, which is owned by Dynegy. The outfall was leased by Dynegy as part of the water cooling system for its power plant before the plant was decommissioned in 2014.

Trident envisions running transmission cable lines from the offshore turbines through the outfall pipeline to the switchyard, which is connected to the state power grid.

Dynegy has discussed the wind energy concept with Trident, but no formal agreements between the companies on the use of the property to connect to the substation have yet been made. Trident is hoping to solidify agreements from the city, PG&E and Dynegy to implement its project.

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 4:13 PM with the headline "Wind energy company to hold forum on potential project in Morro Bay."