Wind Energy – USA
The California Legislature has approved the first part of the money needed to upgrade ports for floating offshore wind development.
This is about USD 228 million (EUR 192.6m). It shows that the state is still committed to clean energy.
The money is part of a USD-475-million package that voters agreed to last autumn to support port infrastructure, industry coalition Offshore Wind California said. This will allow Offshore Wind California to put up wind turbines about 20 to 30 miles off the coast.
Offshore Wind California was pleased about the first part of the project being approved and said it was great news despite there being some problems at a national level. The organisation therefore urged the governor to sign the measure.
The USD-475-million funding is part of a larger climate bond worth USD 10 billion that was approved last November.
The latest statement says that California is still committed to offshore wind and aims to have a 100% clean electricity supply by 2045.
For offshore wind, the state aims to start with 7 GW to 10 GW and up to 25 GW by 2045. In addition, California should get as much as 7.6 GW between 2035 and 2037.
Offshore wind will be very important in helping the state reach its climate, clean-energy, and grid-reliability goals. It will also work well with the solar, storage, and onshore wind resources that California already has. This is according to Offshore Wind California.
California is moving towards having only clean electricity, but the Trump administration has recently stopped giving USD 679 million to 12 projects to build wind turbines on the ocean. Earlier, the president cancelled more than 3.5 million acres (1.4 million hectares) of areas set aside for offshore wind development on the US Outer Continental Shelf.
