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The US state of California is the fourth-largest economy in the world, and it holds 200 gigawatts of offshore wind potential in its hands. While US President Donald Trump would like to see all those clean gigawatts sit there, unused, California officials and industry stakeholders have other plans. They have just blown a big, fat offshore wind raspberry in the direction of the White House. After all, the wind will keep on blowing long after Trump leaves office as scheduled on January 20, 2029 — peacefully one hopes, this time.
200 Gigawatts Of Offshore Wind Potential
The estimate of 200 gigawatts comes from a study issued by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (since renamed the “National Laboratory of the Rockies”), which describes wind resources that are technically recoverable. Not all of that amount is realistically recoverable, but in 2022 the California Energy Commission used the figure to calculate a recoverable goal of 5 gigawatts by 2030 and 25 gigawatts by 2045.
Acting under the direction of California state law AB 525, CEC also laid plans for floating wind turbine technology to be deployed in order to achieve those goals, as much of the Pacific coast is too deep for traditional, monopile offshore turbine construction.
