California Assemblymember David Chiu introduced a bill to the legislature intending to shift the state’s energy sources to rely more on offshore wind power.
Assembly bill 525, if passed, would set a state goal of producing 10 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2040, and would direct state agencies to work on approving the construction of offshore wind infrastructure, such as turbines.
“If the total technical potential for offshore wind capacity along the California coast were built out, the state could see approximately 112 GW of new clean energy. Offshore wind is the perfect complement to California’s existing solar capacity. When the sun sets and solar stops producing, wind picks up allowing offshore wind turbines to produce energy throughout the night and late afternoon during peak usage hours,” according to a press release from Chiu’s office.
California has enacted several measures at the state level to abate climate change, including a law signed in 2018 requiring the state to have a carbon-free electric system by 2045. In order to achieve this goal, California need an estimated 140 gigawatts of new clean energy, according to Chiu’s press release.
In order to access wind power, offshore wind turbines would need to be built 20 to 30 miles offshore in federal waters.
The State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, which represents almost half a million construction workers in the state, is one of the bill’s cosponsors.
“Offshore wind is the next frontier and our highly skilled workforce is positioned to bring a new, limitless and reliable green energy source onto California’s grid. If you will, it’s a wind-win,” said Robert Hunter, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.
The bill is expected to be heard this spring in the Assembly’s policy committee.
What would Texas do?
I have so many questions about this plan.
How will this impact the wildlife 20-30 miles off shore? If these wind turbines ate 20-30 miles off shore, how will the needed electricity safely get to the recipients in CA? How economically feasible is this plan?
While on the surface this seems like a good idea, it just doesn’t seem well thought out and has the potential to be wrought with cost overruns and problems. Think high speed bullet train to nowhere.
The power will be transported to shore in huge battery ships that burn bunker fuel, lol.
And I hope you don’t really think this sounds like a good idea, even on the surface.
@Chicken….no, I certainly do not think it’s a good idea!
There are way too many unknowns that (shockingly) our government leaders haven’t considered or researched
BWHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
They didn’t say it would be cheaper energy.
I’m sure they will decide to put it just a bit offshore and it will completely screw up any chance of going to the beach for a beach experience. You will not be looking at the horizon, nor even a wind “farm,” it is a factory. It produces electricity. I stupidly thought the first couple of wind mills at Rio Vista were interesting, and now they turned the place into a factory it is cringey ugly. In California greedy incompetent politicians and idiot voters have done a huge amount of vandalism to the state, but screwing up the coastline is new low. And I guess with the idiot politician’s world view it needs to be done to offset all of the new coal fired electrical plants coming online in China.
Okay, how much is THIS going to cost us?
Mandate?
Sorry, but I’m going to now hold on to my woodstove and wood. If anything happens here like happened in Texas….I’ll be burning wood. Life before BAAQMD.
Sorry….but that’s REALITY.
Seagulls are protected under federal law, so how many seagulls will fly into them and die? Seagulls are capable of drinking saltwater so they do fly out past 20 or 30 miles in search of food. Seagulls help keep our beaches clean, and they eat insects, which helps keep the insect population down, and they’re incredibly smart.
Are they that stupid???? What happened in Texas should be a lesson to everybody.
Texas’ issue is not wind energy as it is only a small percentage of their energy delivery portfolio. Most of Texas is not connected to the East or West power grid, which leaves them little leeway to purchase from somewhere else. They have their own power grid and do not winterize their fossil fuel (natural gas, nuclear, etc.) delivery equipment. Their delivery system is failing because the gauges are frozen due to the frigid weather – the reason for the rolling blackouts. Abbott was gaslighting last night when he was blaming it on wind energy. This morning he was blaming it on ERCOT, the not for profit that manages their energy delivery.
Someone buy this idiot a one way ticket to some deserted island.
I guess we didn’t burn enough money on the bullet train boondoggle, we need another pie-in-the-sky mega project to line the pockets of the various politically connected entities that actually run our state government.
Regular wind power is already significantly more expensive than natural gas generated electricity. Now add in the incredible technical challenge of doing it in deep water, out in a salt water environment, with no storm protection, no easy access for maintenance, etc etc.. this idea is so incredibly stupid, it could only have been thought up in California.
I would suggest putting the Assembly persons 20-30 miles offshore but it wouldn’t be clean air
Technically possible, but impossible from a practical and economic viewpoint.
Of course, he leaves himself an “out” saying “if all of it were developed, we could get 112GW .
If you assume 10 MW output per windmill, that’s 11,200 windmills. Typical cost of land-based wind turbines is about $1.5 million per MW; so 11,200 land based wind turbines is about $168 billion. Putting them 20-30 miles out in the ocean could double their costs for foundations, floating barges, whatever. Add to that the cost of HV underwater transmission lines of (rough guess) $350 billion, not including substation costs, so you’re talking around $686 billion.
Add inflation, cost overruns, station land acquisition costs, environmental studies, mitigation costs, etc, etc, etc…. and you’re talking over one TRILLION dollars. And the schedule? HA!
Hell, California can’t even run DMV with a $1 billion budget … look at the problems they have with the HSR at $80 billion.
Of course the unions are in favor of it.
From a practical standpoint – NO!
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That’s gonna interfere with whale migration, bird migration, seal migration, and other aquatic sealife. Then there is ship navigation.
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So you all are okay with the issue of connecting all those turbines’ cabling to the shore and distribution points.
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Btw, maintenance of offshore systems is VERY expensive.
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Pfffff, when is someone going to propose a bill to get a new vending machine in the quad? Maybe they can get them to decrease the cost of snickers bars by 5 cents?
Bush league.
When the sun sets and the winds are calm you can still rely on gigawatts of power from nuclear power, which when done properly is clean and safe.
With all the hot wind blowing in Sacramento, maybe the wind turbines should be built there.
I better get a backup generator for my generator.
10 gigawatts? Is that even enough to power a DeLorean?
How about something that really produces energy. A nuclear power plant! No carbon, very green, recycles it’s own waste products and provides good jobs. Maybe on the sites where the fuel storage sites today.
Morons. Recallgavin2020.com
Morons. Recallgavin2020.com and make it fast
Sure as long as owner operators receive no state or federal, production tax credit (PTC) or Investment Tax Credit for Wind.
Believe wind turbines get $24 or $25 for every megawatt produced.
Without those would they still want to go forward with project ? ? ?
Take that away PTC and ITC, already built gas fired power generation is cheaper.
Oh, Gosh, . . . did they forgot to mention that ?
Maybe because campaign contributions work for rich companies.
Oh boy 🙄
This idea reminds me a lot of that high-speed rail project.
Gee, I wonder how that’s doing these days?
https://hsr.ca.gov/about/legislative/project_update_reports.aspx
Great more bird blenders!!
#RecallGavinNewsom
https://recallgavin2020.com/
don’t forget no gas powered cars can be bought here starting 2035, so if see that is just another bad idea from the guy who when to the french laundry and said you had to stay home, well let recall the SOB
https://tinyurl.com/39laqwee
The same people who manage our forests want to manage our power. What could possibly go wrong?