California regulators provide over $17 mil in offshore wind research grant funds

The California Energy Commission approved over $17 million on July 26 to advance floating offshore wind research into environmental monitoring technologies to reduce impacts to wildlife as the state works to meet its goal of 25 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2045.

The grant funds are from the Commission's recent Electric Program Investment Charge solicitation focused on advancing designs for floating offshore wind mooring lines and anchor. A final proposed award will be presented at the Commission's August meeting.

"The California Energy Commission has demonstrated ongoing commitment to advance science and technological innovation, which will help position California as a global leader in the development of robust, sustainable, floating offshore wind industry," said Molly Croll with the American Clean Power association. "The proposed awards for environmental monitoring and mooring and anchoring design serve this goal."

The Commission set a preliminary goal of up to 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 25 GW by 2045.

"We need to be able to industrialize this as quickly as possible if we're going to meet 25 GW of offshore wind," McAllister said, adding the saline environment is "brutal" on equipment, "so these solutions are critical."

Inspection and monitoring systems

The Commission awarded $8.9 million to projects relating to inspection and monitoring systems for floating offshore wind applications and environmental research for floating offshore wind development:

• $3.4 million: Integral Consulting - to develop and validate an integrated, real-time, multi-scale system to monitor avian interactions with floating offshore wind turbines
• $3.5 million: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - to develop and validate an integrated, real-time monitoring system to concurrently monitor marine mammal and ocean environmental impacts from floating offshore wind turbines
• $2 million: Humboldt State University Sponsored Programs Foundation - to develop an environmental monitoring sensor package

"We're breaking new ground in terms of deep-water offshore wind," Commissioner Patty Monahan said. "There's a lot of technical questions. There's a lot of questions about the impact to the environment. There's a lot of unanswered questions that we are trying to answer quickly before we actually start constructing these."

Commissioner Noemi Otilia Osuna Gallardo said this monitoring technology can potentially make California a leader again.

Mooring and anchors research

In addition, the Commission awarded $8.4 million to projects that advance designs for floating offshore wind mooring lines and anchors to address the site-specific needs of California's wind energy areas:

• $2.763 million: University of Maine System Acting Through the University of Maine - to develop a taut-synthetic integrated mooring system for a floating offshore wind turbine platform
• $3.7 million: RCAM Technologies - to advance the design and development of two 3D concrete printed anchors for floating offshore wind energy systems, suitable for a California Wind Energy Area
• $2.56 million: Alliance for Sustainable Energy - to develop comprehensive shared-mooring solutions for floating offshore wind turbines that minimize the cost, risk, and footprint of gigawatt-scale floating wind farms in California

"Floating offshore wind deployments in current California wind energy areas are expected to be in waters as deep as 1,300 meters, which is far deeper than any existing floating offshore wind deployment in other countries," said Mark Danielson, a senior environmental scientist with the Commission's Energy Research and Development Division. "Future wind energy areas may be identified in even deeper waters, so more research is needed to better understand unique design challenges to account for these depths."

The projects will advance new designs and technology, specifically for the deep waters, and weather and seismicity in California wind energy areas, he added. The projects will focus on the local workforce and supply chain constraints in California by reducing fabrication and installation costs.