NewEnergyNews: TODAY’S STUDY: The Benefits Of Ocean Wind In California/

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    Tuesday, September 17, 2019

    TODAY’S STUDY: The Benefits Of Ocean Wind In California

    The California Offshore Wind Project: A Vision for Industry Growth

    July 2019 (American Jobs Project, Pacific Ocean Energy Trust, and BVG Associates)

    Executive Summary

    California’s offshore wind resources represent a significant opportunity to improve grid reliability, achieve clean energy and climate goals, and grow a new industry with a values driven framework. If California pursues cluster-based strategies to achieve 18 GW of offshore wind, the state could support over 17,500 full-time equivalent jobs in 2045.

    The wheels are in motion for California's offshore wind industry. At the start of 2019, the first phases of the federal leasing process are underway—potentially leading to a lease for offshore wind as early as 2020—and domestic and international firms are eyeing California’s market and creating strategic partnerships. Two entities, the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) and Castle Wind, have proposed projects off the coast of Humboldt County and San Luis Obispo County, respectively.

    Developer interest is warranted: With 112 GW of technical offshore wind resource potential along its coastline—enough to supply about 1.5 times the state’s annual electric energy use— California has the eighth-highest resource potential in the United States.3 As the state moves toward a zero-carbon electricity mix in 2045, offshore wind can provide value to the grid by balancing solar generation. Floating offshore wind technology, which is better suited for California due to its deep waters, is relatively new but has demonstrated impressive capacity factors. Scientists project that California’s floating offshore wind turbines could reach capacity factors of over 70 percent, in other words, generating 70 percent of their maximum theoretical output. This capacity factor is two to three times that of solar, nearly twice that of land-based wind, and even greater than that of coal. 4

    In addition to grid reliability, offshore wind offers a number of other benefits to Californians, including the opportunity to develop a new industry from the ground up. We estimate that if California were to install 18 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2045, the state could support over 17,500 jobs in the offshore wind industry, related downstream industries, and surrounding economy in that year. However, the state will need to guide industry growth with a cluster-based approach: creating market certainty, training workers, and facilitating connections in its innovation ecosystem, among other strategies. Working hand in glove with key federal stakeholders such as the U.S. Navy will be needed to create win-win solutions for less restrictive maritime development.

    Through extensive research and over forty interviews with stakeholders and experts in California, the authors assessed the current challenges and opportunities for offshore wind development. The report:

    • Summarizes offshore wind activities in California to date;

    • Presents the benefits of offshore wind in California;

    • Outlines cluster-based strategies for economic development and current competitive advantages;

    • Details development scenarios for offshore wind industry growth from 2019 to 2045 and associated economic impacts; and

    • Suggests policy recommendations to pursue and investigate offshore wind in a holistic manner.

    Summary of Policy Recommendations

    The report culminates in high-level recommendations for California’s leaders based on best practices in the United States and abroad. We recommend that the state bring a systems-level approach to offshore wind development that sets a broad vision for industry growth and considers near- and long-term industry needs and opportunities. While each recommendation can be viewed as a stand-alone option, the recommendations are intended to be complementary and would be more powerful if adopted as a package.

    Policy 1: Appoint a California Offshore Wind Czar Growing California’s offshore wind industry will require comprehensive logistics and holistic planning efforts across the state, federal, and international levels. The governor should consider appointing a California Offshore Wind Czar to create and lead a vision for growth that aligns with the values of Californians and to serve as the primary point of contact for California’s strategic offshore wind efforts. The Czar could be responsible for coordinating activities among state agencies, fostering community programs, advocating for policy and procedural changes in the federal leasing process, building international relationships for knowledge exchange, and capturing domestic and foreign direct investment opportunities.

    Policy 2: Set a Market Acceleration Target and Establish a Comprehensive Approach to Studies Currently, California has limited resources dedicated to sustainably building offshore wind projects and ensuring industry growth aligns with state values and leads to lower energy costs for ratepayers. By developing a state vision spurred by a market acceleration target, California leaders could prioritize areas of research that establish industry development guidelines and frameworks, survey potential impacts on coastal ecosystems, consider innovative financing mechanisms, and streamline project development, among other topics.

    Policy 3: Establish a Phased Approach to Offshore Wind Workforce Development California boasts robust workforce training infrastructure that it can leverage to build a skilled and ready offshore wind workforce. Near-term activities could map workforce planning, convene stakeholder groups on best practice strategies, and target professionals interested in working in the offshore wind industry. Long-term efforts could help build a diverse and inclusive workforce, formalize partnerships between industry and training providers, and ensure investments in offshore wind safety training, operations and maintenance (O&M), monitoring and verification, and technology research and development.

    Policy 4: Align Innovation and Access to Capital Policies with Industry Needs Offshore wind innovation is key to lowering energy costs, increasing grid integration, opening up new markets, protecting marine ecosystems, and improving working conditions. California leaders could facilitate offshore wind research, collaboration, knowledge exchange, and business development through joint industry projects, multidisciplinary academic programs, industry/university partnerships, business accelerators, and access to capital mechanisms that help companies overcome barriers to market entry.

    Policy 5: Upgrade Ports and Establish Port Innovation Districts Globally, ports are the nucleus of offshore wind development, often serving as hubs for the assembly, staging, fabrication, and construction of turbine components and long-term O&M activities. As California cultivates its offshore wind industry, continued port planning and upgrades will be critical to support evolving industry operations. State activities could focus on upgrading key ports to catalyze early-stage projects, building port innovation districts, and prioritizing local community benefits in port revitalization efforts…

    Call to Action

    As California welcomes a new state administration, policymakers and stakeholders will need to think critically about paving the way for a resilient economic, environmental, and energy future. This will require bold leadership to guide the transition towards a stable energy system that creates opportunities for workers and businesses while preserving the state’s cherished environmental values. Offshore wind represents an opportunity for California to achieve this future, potentially supporting more than 17,500 jobs in 2045 while helping the state be at the forefront of the fight against climate change.

    The offshore wind industry is nascent in California; therefore, the state stands to benefit from a coordinated, stakeholder-driven development approach that begins with thorough data collection and environmental analyses. Offshore wind is unlike any industry we have seen as it necessitates collaboration between an unprecedented number of agencies and stakeholders at the federal, state, and local levels. The industry will also require funds to retool and revitalize ports, build new transmission lines, and support workforce development.

    Despite the upfront challenges, the stakes of inaction are high. If California takes a back seat to offshore wind development, the state will lose the opportunity to guide and grow the industry with a values-driven framework and leverage offshore wind as a tool to balance the grid and maintain its climate leadership. If we do not create a vision for this new industry, we may repeat the mistakes of past development: threatened vital ecosystems and a workforce that does not reflect our population.

    In California, we recommend a cluster-based approach that fosters the building blocks of industry growth, such as workforce training and clear market signals. The recommendations in this report are complementary and intended to help California drive technological advances, explore innovating project financing models, equip workers with needed skills, and grow demand for offshore wind. They include short-term actions to jumpstart the industry (e.g., provide offshore wind seminars for energy professionals, study the value of offshore wind, and co-host an offshore wind technology pitch competition) as well as long-term actions for when the industry is underway (e.g., provide innovation vouchers for manufacturers). Because the timeline for offshore wind development is long, policymakers and stakeholders should consider appropriate time horizons for action.

    California’s leaders can draw from dozens of innovative strategies that city, county, and state governments across the country and abroad have implemented in order to create job opportunities in the advanced energy industry. Examples of these best practices and a fully cited version of this report can be found on the American Jobs Project website at http://americanjobsproject.us/. Furthermore, the American Jobs Project can continue to serve as a partner to California by organizing working groups and conducting deeper analyses, such as identifying value chain gaps, exploring policy strategies, and evaluating the state's comparative advantage in other advanced industries.

    When a state succeeds in building an economic cluster, the benefits are felt throughout the state: a more resilient state economy, a skilled twenty-first century workforce that is trained for the jobs of tomorrow, a firm base of young people optimistic about job opportunities close to home, and a rich hub for innovation and collaboration.

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