Ocean Winds, ENGIE’s joint venture held 50/50 with EDP Renewables and dedicated to offshore wind, was awarded a lease area for a floating offshore wind site of 2 GW capacity by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).
Ocean Winds and its partner the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), through their 50/50 joint venture Golden State Wind, was awarded a lease area of 325[X] km2 in the Morro Bay area, off the central coast of California. It is one of five sites that was the subject of an auction held by the BOEM.
The future offshore wind farm will have a capacity of 2 GW, generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 900,000 homes. This will bring California and the U.S. closer to meeting their clean energy goals of 5 GW of floating offshore wind generation by 2030 in California, and 15 GW by 2035 in the U.S.
This auction is the first floating offshore wind lease sale in the US and the first offshore wind lease sale on the West Coast. In North America, Ocean Winds has now about 6 GW under development with this new project in California and its two projects in the East: Mayflower Wind off the New England coast, and Bluepoint Wind off the New York and New Jersey coasts.
In addition to offshore developments, ENGIE has a strong position in North America, with over 4.5 GW of onshore wind and solar projects in operation and construction, to which were added a pipeline of 12 GW of solar and battery storage projects acquired by the Group in 2022.
Commenting, Paulo Almirante, ENGIE Senior Executive Vice President in charge of Renewables, Energy Management and Nuclear Activities, said:
“This new success for Ocean Winds is linked to its pioneer role for more than 10 years in floating offshore wind, with around 4 GW of projects in operation, construction or underdevelopment in Portugal, France, South Korea and the UK. We, at ENGIE, are very proud to contribute to the development of offshore wind in the US, where Ocean Winds is developing now around 6 GW of offshore wind capacity and with significant contribution to the local economy.”