Report: SLO County may not be right location for massive port needed to assemble offshore wind turbines
Image from REACH
New local infrastructure could cost up to $2.4 billion
– A new state study suggests that San Luis Obispo County may not be the right location for the massive port infrastructure needed to assemble floating offshore wind turbines.
On Feb. 10, the California State Lands Commission released its review of port infrastructure needed in the state. The study, conducted by infrastructure advisory firm Moffatt & Nichol, notes that while there is ocean space and coastline available in San Luis Obispo County to fully support the burgeoning floating offshore wind energy industry, such development “does not appear likely.”
That’s because the project would require 1,500-foot-long wharves covering up to 100 acres, costing $2.4 billion, and likely take up to 15 years to build.
The state study says that the project should be sited at already well-developed ports such as those in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Diego, although smaller maintenance or support structures in San Luis Obispo County could be built in Morro Bay or at Port San Luis, the Cal Poly Pier or Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near Avila Beach.
The new report follows a Central-Coast-centered study by economic development think tank REACH published in December.
After an auction in December, three companies bid a collective $425.6 million to lease a total of 376 square miles of the Pacific Ocean about 20 miles off the coast of Cambria and San Simeon. The so-called Morro Bay wind energy area could generate about 6 gigawatts of electricity if fully built out, according to the leaseholders.
Massive floating wind turbines are expected to be installed more than a dozen miles offshore of Morro Bay by 2030, according to officials.
Read the full story at The Tribune
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