Lindt, J., & Lindt, J. (2020, February 8). Push for wind farms off Central Coast now has Navy’s support. Retrieved from https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article240103098.html

 

About a month ago, the Navy agreed on some areas where California can build their offshore wind turbines. The Navy is okay with offshore turbines being built in Northern California, but not as much in Southern California. The problem with Northern California is that there is a lack of available transmission capacity, which is necessary for offshore wind turbines. The Navy has allowed us to build in some small areas in Southern California, but not that much so far. California hopes that the Navy will extend the boundaries that we can use for offshore wind turbines in the future because the state’s goal is to eventually power the grid with 100% renewable energy. 

I think that this is a good start for the Navy allowing us to use some areas to build offshore turbines, but in the future we will need much more area to provide a sustainable industry. Only if we could get a better transmission capacity in Northern California, then we could have much more land to build the turbines and we’d probably have enough to create a sustainable industry. But for now, we will have to work with what we have and make the best of it, hoping that in the future the Navy allows us to use more area off the coast in Southern California.