First massive floating offshore wind tender gets underway in California

A mammoth offshore wind auction is underway in the United States which will spur at least 4.6GW of floating offshore wind off the coast of California.

The US government’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) this week opened the wind lease auction for five areas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off central and northern California.

The auction is a first for California’s Pacific Ocean deep waters, where water depths range from 500 metres down to 1,300 metres and therefore require the projects to use floating wind turbines.

The five wind lease zones are spread across two separate areas off Morro Bay in central California and Humboldt County in the north of the state.

The auction will be fought out between 43 applicants, including the renewable subsidiaries of oil and gas giants BP, Total, and Shell; incumbent offshore wind giants like Orsted, Equinor, and EDF; as well as some newcomers and joint ventures.

The leasing round is expected to run for several days, with provisional winners to be announced at the conclusion of the round, but results will need to be certified, which may take several weeks.

The auction follows the hugely successful tender for fixed-bottom wind capacity in the New York Bight, held earlier this year, where bids totalled $4.37 billion.

The California auction also forms a vital part of the Biden administration’s goal to deploy 30GW of offshore wind energy by 2030, and 15GW of floating offshore wind by 2035.