The California 2070 Project: Offshore Wind Energy: The Good, The Bad, & The Unforeseen
California passed SB 100 in 2018 to set a state goal of moving to 100% clean energy by 2045. While an admirable effort by legislators to encourage and insist upon clean energy for our future, the question remains: how exactly can we reach this target?
Offshore wind energy provides a hopeful solution: “Offshore wind could supply more clean energy than the entire state’s current electricity needs,” said Laura Deehan, State Director of Environment California. Offshore wind turbines, within a seven second rotation, can produce enough renewable electricity to power a home for an entire day.
As recently as February of this year, Assembly Bill 525 was passed in California. AB 525 requires the Energy Commission and specified agencies to “develop a strategic plan to achieve a goal of at least 10,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy developments installed off the California coast by 2040.”
Offshore wind energy development entails 600 foot tall floating wind turbines located 20-30 miles offshore.
The production of this energy has the potential to attract investment capital and support workforce economic development via the development and preservation of a skilled and trained construction workforce to carry out projects, long-term job creation, and development of an offshore wind energy supply chain. During the construction phase alone, 10 GW of offshore wind production would create up to 14,000 annual jobs, along with another 3,000 operations and maintenance jobs. Not to mention the oil and gas industries and their existing skilled workforce who have experience with ocean energy infrastructure.
This is one way to diversify California’s power grid, which is an urgent matter (check out this article about the pitfalls of California power-grid, relating to climate change). Unlike solar energy, wind turbines offer energy during the evening and night hours; pairing these two clean sources of energy could bode well for California’s energy supply.
However, multiple environmental NGOs including Audubon California, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Environmental Defense Center, the National Audubon Society, Sierra Club California, and Surfrider Foundation wrote a letter to Chairman Holden explaining their concerns about responsibly developing offshore wind energy, and asking for the bill to be amended before they give their support. The effects of offshore wind energy on California marine and coastal ecosystems, habitats, and cultural resources are unknown, and thus require a solid framework for identifying the best location for turbines that will have the least potential conflicts. By incorporating all stakeholders and planning responsibly and cautiously, local and cumulative environmental impacts might be minimized.
Given past conflicts between renewable energy projects and conservation, the NGO’s make a valid point. For instance, wind turbines pose threats to avian species: A 2019 study estimated that wind turbines affect the life and habitat of around 150,000 birds in the U.S. annually. But this study is in regard to inland wind farms. The potential effects of offshore wind farms opens up an entirely new can of worms.
According to this study, the hazards to birds by the construction of offshore wind farms are the barrier they present to avian movement; loss, gain and enhancement of habitat, and collision risk. However, these hazards are dependent on the location, and as there haven’t been many studies about the conflicts to marine ecosystems in California specifically, conservationists remain worried about negative impacts.
On another note, technological solutions are already in use, such as the IdentiFlight system. This entails eight cameras that record the area around wind turbines. When the birds get too close to the turbines, the device will detect the raptors and automatically switch off a windmill in an attempt to mitigate the threat to the birds.
The concept of offshore wind energy and the potential it has to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide for a cleaner, more sustainable future is exciting, and a major step forward in the goal to move towards clean energy. However, I think the hesitation of the NGOs to support the bill until amended is a wise decision. In order to create 10,000 megawatts of offshore wind, roughly 1,200 square miles of the ocean will be “developed”. It is a daunting task, building in the ocean, especially with the precious and complex marine ecosystems and life that will inevitably be affected by this production. Fortunately, I believe finding a method to implement wind energy while minimizing the environmental impacts is important, and can be done if we demand it.
