EUREKA, Calif. — California is looking to lead the way on renewable energy on the west coast.
In 2021, AB 525 was passed in the California legislature to come up with a strategic plan to create offshore wind energy. A goal of 2-5 gigawatts of renewable energy was established for 2030 and 25 gigawatts for 2045.
Since then, five lease sites in Northern and Central California have been purchased in federal waters, three in Morro Bay and two in Humboldt County.
The first sites to establish wind energy are expected to be in Humboldt County by 2030. Before any manufacturing of wind turbines takes place, the ports need to be renovated and expanded. It's estimated that $12 billion will be needed for ports up and down California's coastline. So far, $475 million has been awarded to Humboldt Harbor. A little more than half of that is still needed to reach the $1 billion needed for the renovation.
"The first report on offshore wind strategy estimated that the port improvements that we need across the state in multiple ports would cost us about $12 billion. And so we need to have a plan in place about how we're going to finance those. It needs to be done very quickly," said Assemblymember Rick Zbur, representing Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
Zbur, the Democratic Caucus Chair, said he's seeing how rapidly the effects of climate change is causing an impact.
"We need to do a lot of planning and we need to make smart decisions. It's not the reason to slow down. It's the reason to speed up if we can," he said.
As legislators, state and federal land commissions, the California Coastal Commission, the Public Utilities Commission, the Ocean Protection Council, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Governor's Office and wind energy developers, may be ready to go forward with the plan, others are saying 'Let's slow down.'
"We're not here to stop wind power projects. Fishermen are not opposed to renewable energy at all, but we are opposed to losing 4,000 miles of fishing grounds north to San Francisco. That's what we're looking at over the next 30 years," said Ken Bates, president of the California Fishermen's Resiliency Association.
Bates, like many other fisherman, said they're concerned about a long list of items presented in the a minimization and mitigation plan put forth by the California Fishermen's Resiliency Association.
Concerns range from financial impacts like the loss of gear to transmission lines, lost income to fewer fishing days, the effects on tribal fishing grounds, congestion in and out of the port and the impacts on marine life.
"There could be some problems getting in and out of the harbor, from what we understand that these things are huge. And they need slack water and they need flat water. And that's all the kind of weather we try to get out on" said Tom Fulkerson, a long time fisherman in Eureka.
The wind turbines are said to be massive and must be shipped by vessel, rather than carried by semi-trucks on land.
"The blades are roughly as long as a football field? So I mean, they're sizable," said Andrew Doba, the communications director with Vineyard Offshore.
The brand new wind energy industry is expected to be headed in Humboldt and would take manufactured wind turbine parts from San Diego, Long Beach and Morro Bay to be assembled in Humboldt Bay at old timber sites.
"The floating foundation at the turbine sits on top of assembling those, launching them into the water. And then once the floating foundation is in the water, you can either put it in wet storage, which is like a parking lot in the bay where you're waiting for the crane to be ready" said Rob Holmlund, with the Humboldt Bay Harbor District.
Offshore wind energy may be the missing link to round out California's renewable energy options. Providing about 10% of the energy to the grid, the wind turbines out at sea would be able to generate power at night, when solar energy is not available.
"The strength of those winds, frankly, can be tapped into in a way that I think will be really beneficial and help to bring stability to the grid and has the potential to be a pretty low cost source of energy once it's up and running," said Elizabeth Klein, the director of the Bureau of Oceanic Energy Management.
The wind turbines are different from those on the east coast and for most of the world. Due to the depths of California's coastline, nearly 4,000 feet deep, these turbines will not be able to be mounted to the ground of the ocean floor. In fact, they will need to float.
"You've got a turbine out in the ocean, that is that is generating power. It is connected to what is called an array cable that will, generally, link a string of turbines. So, it could be five, six, depending on how many, right? They go to an offshore substation, where the powers is processed, sent through to export cables, to the shore, where it's connected to the grid," Andrew Doba said.
Talks of ship traffic and congestion caused concerns for commercial fisherman because there is only one way in and out of Humboldt Harbor.
"There could be some problems getting in and out of the harbor, from what we understand that these things are huge. And they need slack water and they need flat water. And that's all the kind of weather we try to get out on," said Fulkerson.
Jana Ganion, a senior advisor for offshore wind energy for the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, said it's being used in other countries. So, why not California?
"The climate emergency is already here. We know that the primary cause is fossil energy. We need solutions to transfer away from fossil energy as fast and as manageably as possible. And offshore wind provides a really good benefit stack in that space," Ganion said.
Several groups are working on surveying the lease sites for potential marine life impacts. The California Coastal Commission said biology is front and center when it comes to their research.
"There's concern that the sound that's used in the surveys could harm marine life, whether it's whales and seals or fish. And a lot of it depends on the details. It depends on how loud the sound is. It depends on the frequency of the sound that's used," said Joseph Street, with the California Coastal Commission.
"We don't have a lot of really good data to be able to judge to what extent the surveys could affect catch," Street said.
Benjamin Ruttenberg with the Center for Coastal Marine Sciences at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo said offshore wind has a long history in Europe with some studies showing limited effects on marine life.
"I do not know of any studies that have found major impacts on marine mammals, like whales. There's been some studies done on birds that generally seem like the birds will avoid a lot of these areas as opposed to fly through for them unnecessarily being directly impacted," Ruttenberg said.
While the sonar being used to survey the wind sites may only be temporary, the underground sea cables that will be transmitting energy from the wind turbines back to shore may have impacts on crabs, according to fisherman.
"They're sensitive to pretty much everything. If they come up against a transmission line that's underground I don't know what that's going to do to the migration of the crabs," Fulkerson said.
Proponents for offshore wind said they want both sides to work together.
"We want to hear from fishing communities and from tribes about why these areas are important, and how we can really minimize the impacts of this type of development," Klein said.
ABC10 reached out to the local Wiyot Tribe, whose tribal grounds are off the coast of Eureka. They did not return requests for comment or an interview. Other local tribes, like the Yurok and Bear River, have openly opposed offshore wind.
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