Update: California offshore wind lease auction bids total more than $402 million in first day
Update, 3 p.m.:
The auction for five leases of ocean space off the coast of California for wind energy developments concluded at 2:20 p.m. on Tuesday, and will resume at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
In total, $402.1 million in bids were placed for the five areas over 20 rounds of bidding throughout Tuesday.
For the three leases available in the Morro Bay wind energy area, bids reached $75.3 million, $85 million and $100.3 million.
And for the Humboldt wind energy area, bids reached $62.7 million and $78.8 million for the two available leases.
Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, noted Tuesday that the first day of the auction seemed to be a successful sign.
“Today’s auction, which drew hundreds of millions of dollars in interest from the private sector, proves that wind can and will be an economic powerhouse for the Central Coast,” he said in an emailed statement.
Newly elected California Assemblymember Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay, said Tuesday that the eventual sale of the offshore wind energy leases is simply one step in a long process to come before wind turbines are erected in the Pacific Ocean.
“The development of offshore wind off the Central Coast will impact our communities in ways we can’t fully appreciate today,” she said in an emailed statement. “In the coming years, state and regional policymakers must seriously examine how offshore wind farms affect what makes the coast great — our fisheries, public beaches, native lands and our economy, including tourism. There is no doubt that, if done right, offshore wind will be a great benefit to California’s push for 100% clean energy and to our economy. My focus will be on ensuring that our coastal communities have a voice in the process and share in those benefits.”
Original story:
The federal government on Tuesday began auctioning off more than 370,000 acres of the Pacific Ocean off the California coast for future floating wind turbine development.
The auction began at 7 a.m., with 43 companies qualified to bid for one of the seven leases offered by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
Bids began at $100 per acre. As of 10:20 a.m., two of the leases offered off the Central Coast had risen to $70.3 million and $55 million each, with the third at $40.3 million.
The two leases offered off the shores of Humboldt Bay in Northern California were going for $12.7 million and $23.8 million as of 10:20 a.m., according to BOEM.
There was no set time that for the auction to conclude, and it could continue into Wednesday.
The auction is the first ever for the United States on the West Coast.
Other offshore wind energy leases on the East Coast were for fixed-bottom turbine developments, whereas those off California’s coast will be for floating turbines because the ocean is far deeper where the leases are located.
In total, 373,268 acres off the shores of the Central and Northern California coasts are being auctioned on Tuesday.
Of that, 240,898 acres are located about 20 miles west of Cambria and San Simeon in San Luis Obispo County, and another 132,369 acres are about 20 miles west of Eureka in Humboldt County, according to BOEM’s October final sale notice outlining the terms of the auction and lease stipulations.
The San Luis Obispo County acreage — labeled the “Morro Bay wind energy area” — is split into three leases of about 80,000 acres each. The more northern “Humboldt wind energy area” is split into two leases of about 63,000 and 69,000 acres, according to the final sale notice.
In total, the two wind energy areas are expected to have the capacity to generate 4.5 gigawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 1.6 million homes, according to BOEM.
Companies can only win one of the five leases in the auction.
Anyone interested can monitor the bidding on BOEM’s website at boem.gov/california.
This story was originally published December 6, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
