Offshore Wind Power Could Help California Reach Its Ambitious Clean Energy Goals

Posted by: KHTS Articles in News Articles November 6, 2019 - 2:59 pm 0 473 Views

California has a goal to get all its electricity from clean energy sources by 2045. An interim goal is for 60% of all utility retail sales to be obtained from renewable resources by 2030.

This is more ambitious than the World Green Building Council’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment that calls on states, regions, cities, and companies to ensure all new buildings in their portfolios operate with net-zero emissions by 2030 and that all buildings (old and new) are net zero in operation by 2050.

The state of California generates power from a variety of sources, including biomass, combined heat and power, geothermal energy, hydroelectric power, liquefied natural gas, nuclear energy, and wind energy, with wind providing more than 6.5% of all in-state electricity. This is enough to power 1,312,500 homes.

Additionally, wind power has numerous environmental benefits because it doesn’t create emissions and it uses almost no water at all. In California last year (2018), wind power:

Based on the national average water consumption factors for gas and coal plants, saved 2.9 billion gallons of water that would otherwise have been consumed.
Saved the equivalent of 22 billion water bottles.
Avoided 6.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Avoided the equivalent of 1.4 million emissions that would have come from cars.

With the value of wind energy established, a recent California Energy Commission (CEC) workshop focused on offshore wind as a renewable resource.

Their conclusion was that it has the potential to help California reach its ambitious clean energy goals. Additionally, they found that this “new” resource also has the potential to add resilience to the electric grid.

Offshore Wind Power in California

Offshore wind power is part of California’s 2019 Integrated Energy Policy Report that identifies and provides ongoing solutions for the state’s energy issues and needs. The CIC, together with various stakeholders, has produced the report annually since 2003 in a bid to identify and implement strategies for reliable, affordable, environmentally sound supplies of natural gas, electricity, and transportation fuels.

The challenge for policymakers is to shift away from oil and natural gas and take steps that will help the state move to a more sustainable future.

Having identified the potential of California’s offshore wind to generate energy at night when solar power is not available, the state’s intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force has been exploring possibilities since 2016 when the task force was established.

Because it is a relatively new industry, the first offshore wind project only came online in 2016. Located on the northeast coast in Rhode Island, it is a pilot project with five wind turbines on platforms that are mounted to the sea bed.

The offshore wind in California, on the other hand, demands floating wind turbines because 96% of its wind resources are located in water that is deeper than 60 meters.

The CEC is developing a report based on the 24 presentations given at the workshop as well as additional information discussed. Presentations covered many elements of offshore wind power including the potential for offshore wind for California, floating technology for offshore wind developments, and implications for the fishing industry.

Wind Energy in California

We all know that California led the world in the development of wind energy in the early days, through most of the 1980s and 1990s, producing around 30% of wind-generated power globally.

According to an American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) fact sheet updated in October 2019, California currently now ranks fifth in the U.S. for installed wind capacity of 5,842 and wind-power installations. The state ranks second for its 6,575 wind turbines with Texas ranking first with 14,198 and installed wind capacity of 27,036 MW.

Nevertheless, California still has some of the most ambitious energy goals in the world.

Currently, the state has well-known wind resource areas inland, including those near San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Tehachapi, just 70 miles north of Santa Clarita, where the Alta Wind Project, the largest in the U.S., is located.

Perhaps ironically, it isn’t so much the wind an area experiences that makes it suitable for wind farm turbines. For instance, while Tehachapi has windy areas, it certainly isn’t windy all the time. Illinois isn’t far behind California in terms of installed wind capacity (4,886 MW), ranking sixth in the state, and providing 6.8% of all in-state production of electricity vs California’s 6.5%. Yet Chicago, nicknamed the windy city, isn’t anywhere near wind farms, unlike Santa Clarita which isn’t known for its wind. This might be because of the lack of open spaces in the Chicago area or the threat of damage to turbines in the icy winter months. A Californian or Chicago engineering firm would be able to provide more information.