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Morro Bay wind farm may be operating by 2025

July 18, 2016

Offshore wind turbinesCORRECTION: The average wind speeds in the area of the proposed wind farm were misstated and are 19 mph.

The company planning to construct a wind farm off the coast of Morro Bay aims to have the project operating by 2025, even though the technology it is using remains in an exploratory phase. The proposed Central Coast wind farm is one of dozens of pilot projects worldwide that aim to use floating turbines, rather than fixed turbines. [Energy Digital]

There are currently more than 70 offshore wind farms in the world, but no floating wind farms are operating at utility scale. Floating turbines, which can be placed further offshore than fixed turbines, have the potential to harness energy from stronger winds.

Trident Winds, a Seattle-based company, plans to place 100 floating turbines 33 miles off the coast of Morro Bay. The turbines will harness energy from winds that have an average speed of 8.5 miles per hour.

The Morro Bay wind farm will consist of turbines mounted on floating structures. Each turbine will have a nameplate capacity of 6MW or greater. Trident aims for the farm to have a total nameplate capacity of 765MW, with the potential of later increasing the amount of energy produced.

At a cost of $3.5 million, the U.S. Energy Department is funding the development of the project’s technology through its Advanced Research Projects Agency energy program. A team of four universities and two national laboratories has three years to build and test a scaled prototype, which is to have two blades instead of the standard three blades.

Many of the existing offshore wind farms are situated off European coasts. The first offshore U.S. wind farm is expected to come online later this year. It will be operating off the coast of Rhode Island. The Morro Bay project would be California’s first wind farm.


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Lets harness the hot air flowing out of our government office and save all the construction costs.


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Just imagine how much diesel will be consumed in construction and for daily maintenance. The trip there will take about 4 hours each way!


Money Pit.


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If only there were a faster way to transport materials for the build and maintenance Something that would fly, and be able to carry large amounts of weight, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 pounds at a time. We could call this magical contraption the “Sikorsky Slycrane” . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-64_Skycrane


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“8.5 miles per second”? That’s 30,600 miles per hour! I’m pretty sure wind that fast would rip the ocean right off the surface of the Earth.


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Lol, the Trident Winds website has the same speed, they moved the decimal or something, 17mph/15ks.


Hey PR department, you had one job.


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I’m thinking feet per second, commonly used for the speed of gases and liquids, or 5.8 mph.


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The only people whining about dead birds are usually Bird hunters. Think about that.


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I was recently in Holland where they have modern wind generators in the ocean. The country is forward thinking, reject over regulation and embrace alternative renewable energy sources. The birds are thriving, no mass bird injuries and the effect is informed, positive peaceful, safe. How Dreadful.


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I was in Denmark and besides the wind machines, all the trash was recycled, composted or burned for electricity and the hot water pumped in the streets of Copenhagen to heat the buildings.


I talked with people about it and no complaints, most everyone understood it was the right thing to do.


They also have good schools, healthcare and the cops don’t fool around yet they are respectful to the citizens.


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Commie!


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Denmark has different demographics than the USA and is a bad comparison.


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Not for long! Google “Muslim, attacks, Denmark”; synagogue shootings, child rape, demonstrators throwing throwing acid on people, these are a few of their favorite things.. the Danes ruined their little paradise just like the French. The Muslims have vowed to conquer Europe and if you do perceive an enemy you cannot defeat it.


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With the exception of acid throwing (and we have a parallel there too), every one of those acts have taken place in the US as well, In fact a couple hundred miles south of here a white guy set several people on fire…. wait… did you have a point.


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Yes, because the problem all over the world is not Muslim terrorists but white terrorists.


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What if those white terrorist built lots of hydro dams?


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Nice total non sequitur.


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Unfortunately, you are correct.. Muslim “refugees” are rapidly bringing crime and violence to once safe European countries.


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Wtf are you bringing up shootings, child rape, throwing acid on people?


Every country has problems but “the Danes ruined their little paradise” you have no idea what you are talking about.


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Yeah, good call. I forgot that you can’t draw a comparison between two things unless they are equal to begin with.


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Denmark is mostly white.


The USA is not.


It is a bad comparison.


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Don’t be racist. It is not different skin color that causes conflict but cultural differences. Even there, cultural differences are not necessarily bad but they can be. (Tacos anyone?)


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Just another impediment to commercial and sports fishing out of the harbor in Morro Bay. Another pipe dream that will be financed by the taxpayers.


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Just another fleecing of our wallets. What will the return on investment be? The California environmental concerns will probably result in the cost of the project doubling since there would be a great possibility that a seagull could get harmed by the turbines. I can’t even imagine what solutions will come up for that although I will conclude that hundreds of thousand dollars or more likely millions will be spent to study the problem.


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Pie in the Sky looking for Gubermint $$$…


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The view of the wind farm is one thing but what will the view of the transmission lines look like?


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Like a cable coming up out of the water on shore somewhere?


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“33 miles off the coast of Morro Bay.”


Unless you live on a houseboat 30+ miles off the coast how are you gonna have a view of the wind farm?


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