Opponents of high sea wind energy urge federal officials to revoke a U.S. government government of $ 427 million granted by the Biden administration to expand and update the Redwood marine terminal in Humboldt County, California, to partially house the construction of approved floating wind, but local officials come with the development of the infrastructure of 850 infrastructure. millions of dollars.
The groups aligned with the National Offshore Wind Opposition Alliance requested the Secretary of North -American Transportation Sean Duffy last month to terminate the 2024 grant at the port of Humboldt Bay, the Recreation and Conservation District in Eureka, citing a directive by President Donald Trump to reassure the approvals of the Federal Wood “Improper Federal Funds”. The project had also received in 2023, a separate $ 9 million grant to create a Master Plan for Wind Development to start studies, design and allow and create a process management process and subsidies.
But the expanded infrastructure will support the increasing shipping needs of the port located 280 miles north of San Francisco, as well as those related to the emerging offshore wind industry, the executive director of Humboldt Bay Harbor, Chris Mikkelsen, told Enr.
Expansion and modernization include a 1,200 -feet dock, a 40 -hectare staging area and deep water drooping capable of accommodating specialized ships needed for the transportation of the wind turbine. It also admits environmental restoration, renewable energy in place and the improvement of community access improvements for the project is approaching 30% and is expected to be wrapped in 2026, according to Mikkelsen. The district is also ready to launch an RFP to select a port operator.
“We are planning a modern and heavy sea terminal with various uses,” said Mikkelsen, quoting bulk products and wood products as markets that would benefit from an expanded and improved port. “We want to be a revitalized and flexible port,” he added, while emphasizing the staircase of the wind of the high seas: “Wind resources are larger in this part of the state.”
“Economic Development”
The port would support the assembly and the installation of turbines at hundreds of feet high, which are scheduled for about 20-30 kilometers on the coast of the Humboldt Bay in northern California. American and European developers offered more than $ 757 million for five leases of ocean roads and out of the sea of Morro Bay, about 500 kilometers south at a federal auction of December 2022 for deep water energy projects that will require floating wind turbines. The United States Interior Department said they can produce more than 4.6 GW of wind outside the sea. The state has set floating wind energy goals up to 5 GW capacity for 2030 and 25 GW by 2045.
“We will be rehabilitating an obsolete marine terminal for modern trade and trade,” said Mikkelsen. “This is true rural economic development. This is what our administration has wanted to invest.”
One of the winning bidders, the renewable developer in Germany, RWE, had begun research on the site last year on his 1.6 GW commercial scale project in the Humboldt Bay area, called Wind Offshore in Canopy, but from the Trump administration, he has stopped the work and has reduced staff, as he said in a regulatory presentation in March. The firm has also stopped work on developing a larger project that won at a 2022 federal auction outside New York and New Jersey called Community Offshore Wind.
Despite increasing energy demand, ) We remain cautious, considering political developments, “RWE CEO, Marcus Krebber, told investors and analysts on April 30.” We have introduced higher requirements for future investments in the United States, “including the possibility of having necessary federal permits on the site and the” Safe “tax credits.
Vineyard Offshore, another winning developer in California, has also stopped work and cutting staff. “In an effort to place our projects to be a long -term sustainable success, we have made the difficult decision to reduce the current size of the team to the light of recent market uncertainties,” the company told local media. “We look forward to moving on these North -American transformative energy projects over the coming years.”
But wind proponents on the coast in California say that the long-term potential of the industry and the state’s financial and political support do so resistant to boosting Washington.
“Despite the new federal heads, California follows the course in the wind out of the sea,” said Adam Stern, executive director of Wind California, a commercial group representing developers and companies in the supply chain.
State funding
To support clean energy goals, the state has provided funding in a number of ways. In 2022, voters approved a climate deposit of $ 10 million, including $ 475 million for the wind port infrastructure on the high seas. Governor Gavin Newsom’s current budget proposes to release $ 228 million from this funding. Separately, the California Energy Commission is preparing to assign $ 42.8 million to the seafront updates on the seafront and last year granted $ 11 million for design and permission.
The California independent system operator, which operates the state energy transmission system, has also pointed out the long -term alignment with the energy of earnings out of the sea. Its transmission plan 2024-2025 reserves 1.6 GW of network capacity for the wind outside the sea of the area of the Humboldt Bay by 2039 and has identified the need for multiple ports of integration and staging to achieve long -term wind goals.
In March, the Port of Long Beach near Los Angeles was notified that the State Energy Commission studies a grant of $ 20 million to help fund the engineering, environmental analysis and dissemination of the community for its planned $ 5 million wind project, planned at its 2023 launch as the largest US installation designed to adapt to the Assembly of Turbines. Together with the Humboldt Bay project, it would anchor the strategy of multiple ports of the state to eventually serve the construction and operation of the lease.
“Currently in the state of environmental review, Pier Wind would involve the creation of 400 hectares of land for a terminal capable of managing high -elevation cranes operations to stage, store and build some of the largest offshore wind turbines in the world,” said Suzanne Plezia, director of Port Engineering Services, Port, director of engineering services.
