London, UK, 9th December 2022 – Ocean Winds (OW) and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), through their 50/50 offshore wind joint venture Golden State Wind, were awarded a 32,500 hectares lease area by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the Morro Bay area off the central coast of California.
The lease area awarded is one of five sites off the coast of California that was the subject of an auction held by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). This auction is particularly notable as it is the first floating offshore wind lease sale in the country, and the first offshore wind lease sale of any kind, on the West Coast.
OW is already developing around 4GW of offshore project in the Northeast of the U.S., Mayflower Wind off the New England coast, and Bluepoint Wind off the New York and New Jersey coasts. The latest is the project being developed out of the seabed lease area awarded during the New York Bight auction earlier this year.
Bautista Rodriguez, CEO of Ocean Winds said: “As a pioneer in floating offshore wind and firm believer in its capabilities to produce large capacity of clean energy and create local opportunities around the world, Ocean Winds is very proud to have been awarded a new project during this first floating offshore wind auction in the U.S. We are committed to bringing the country and California closer to meeting their clean energy goals, while building a new domestic industry, creating jobs, and boosting the local economy.”
Ocean Winds has more than 10 years of experience in floating offshore wind, most notably through the development and operation of Windfloat Atlantic, the world’s first fully commercially operational floating offshore wind farm. OW has a substantial portfolio of floating projects in Europe and South Korea and is ideally positioned to bring this technology to the Golden State.
When fully built out and operational, Golden State Wind’s lease area can accommodate approximately 2 GW of offshore wind energy, generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 90000 homes. This will bring the U.S. and California closer to meeting their clean energy goals of 15 GW of floating offshore wind generation by 2035 in the U.S. and 5 GW by 2030 in California – building a new domestic industry, creating jobs for Californians, and boosting the local economy.
As part of OW and CPP Investments’ winning bid, Golden State Wind committed to invest in workforce development and supply chain initiatives and to work closely with key local stakeholders to maximize the benefits to California from the emerging offshore wind industry.
