The state took a giant step toward revving up its offshore wind industry on July 10 when the California Energy Commission unanimously approved an ambitious plan to establish hundreds of giant wind turbines at two locations on the state’s central and northern coast.
Millions of federal dollars have already gone toward creating this nascent industry. California’s goal is to get five gigawatts of offshore wind power online by 2030, and ramp up to 25 gigawatts by 2045. Wind turbine technology is well-proven, but floating offshore wind farms are still in their infancy. The United States doesn’t have any yet.
Building, assembling, transporting, and placing that infrastructure is expected to generate lots of power and lots of jobs. Much of that work will happen at the Port of Long Beach. The timeline is long before Eiffel-tower-sized wind turbines dot the California coast.
How does the Port of Long Beach fit into this?
Think of the port as a wind turbine nursery. Once the pieces of the turbine are manufactured, they’ll get put together at the Port of Long Beach, and held there until the seas are calm enough and boats are available to tow them to their final location dozens of miles offshore.
Suzanne Plezia stands in front of 400 empty acres of water at The Port of Long Beach, which will house its offshore wind turbine facility. Photo by Caleigh Wells.
Why Long Beach though?
A few reasons:
- There are no “air height restrictions,” says Chief Harbor Engineer Suzanne Plezia. In other words, there isn’t a bridge blocking the tall turbines from their final destination in the Pacific Ocean. The calm waters in the San Francisco Bay, for example, are behind the Golden Gate Bridge. And the turbines can’t stand up underneath that.
- The turbines need to be assembled in calm water, which the breakwater in front of the port provides.
- “You have direct access to the open ocean here with those deep wide channels,” Plezia says. The boats that will tow the assembled turbines need deep enough water to navigate safely.
- The cranes at the port are capable of bearing the weight of the turbine pieces.
What makes these turbines so different from the ones that are already operating?
Simple: They float!
The technology is less simple. That’s why it’s a big deal.
“The majority of offshore wind installed around the world and on the East Coast is fixed bottom, where the foundation's embedded directly into the seabed, which works for waters up to about 200 feet deep. But California's … water depth is about 3000 feet deep. So we need to use floating foundations,” says Plezia.
These will be some of the first turbines in the country that aren’t touching the ground. And for something this large, making it stable is a major feat. Floating foundations are still in the design stage. “And none have been produced at that commercial scale that we’ll need to meet our energy goals,” says Plezia.
The Port of Long Beach proposes that roughly one turbine per week can be assembled at Pier Wind when the facility is fully operational, as in this rendering. Photo courtesy of the Port of Long Beach.
What else will change as this industry comes online?
Lots of new jobs. The Port of Long Beach expects its project to generate roughly 17,500 jobs over the next two decades, including construction, manufacturing, and continued transferable work like boat and crane operation.
Construction for the project is expected to begin in 2027. It’ll be operational by 2031, and it will operate at full capacity by 2035.