California (United States) has reached an agreement with federal partners to advance offshore wind development. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will offer a lease sale in 2022 within a 399 mi2 (1,033 km2) area of the Central Coast northwest of Morro Bay and a separate area on the North Coast. The two areas, identified by the Departments of the Interior and Defence and the State of California, could bring up to 4.6 GW of offshore wind to the grid by 2030.
The USA plans to deploy 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030. Consequently, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management intends to advance new lease sales and complete review of at least 16 Construction and Operations Plans (COPs) by 2025, representing more than 19 GW of new capacity. Earlier in May 2021, the administration greenlighted the 800 MW Vineyard offshore wind project in Massachusetts.