Port of Long Beach officials detailed ambitious plans for a $4.7 billion offshore wind power development during this week’s harbor commission meeting.
The floating, offshore wind facility, to be called Pier Wind, would be years in the making and would be designed to support the manufacture and assembly of offshore wind turbines standing some 1,000 feet tall — about the size of the Eiffel Tower.
It would be the largest such facility in any U.S. seaport designed specifically to accommodate assembling offshore wind turbines.
Discussions and planning are underway with both state and federal officials for the project.
Providing details on the project for commissioners, POLB Chief Harbor Engineer Suzanne Plezia provided details to Long Beach harbor commissioners on Monday, May 8, including that it would link into state and federal efforts to ramp up renewable energy sources in the next few years and decades.
Port Executive Director Mario Cordero touched on the project publicly in his State of the Port address in late January, saying it was part of a new zero-emissions policy, dubbed “ZEERO,” that the port has adopted.
The wind facility’s conception began, Plezia said, “with the port’s commitment to the environment as the Green Port.”
In order to reach zero-emission goals overall, she said, “we need an abundant supply of zero-carbon energy.”
Currently, Plezia added, California is developing a strategic plan, set to be completed this summer, that would aim to supply 45 gigawatts of offshore power by 2045 statewide.
The project for the Port of Long Beach outlined this week will be a component of that plan, she said — but it would also special among seaports.
“This is a great vision and adds to our resume as a green port,” Cordero said during Monday’s commission meeting, “and, for that matter, the greenest port in the nation.”
There are “serious (funding) challenges but they are challenges we can overcome” by collaborating with partners, Cordero said. “There is no lack of political will and no lack of private sector interest.”
Pier Wind would be created on newly built land southwest of the Long Beach International Gateway Bridge. It would span up to 400 acres, bringing with it new jobs for communities around the port, according to officials.
Construction could potentially start in January 2027, according to the port, with the first 100 acres operational in early 2031, the second 100 acres coming online in late 2031 and the final 200 acres in place by 2035 — when the facility would be fully functioning.
“Imagine fully assembled wind turbines capable of generating 20 megawatts of energy,” Cordero said in a press release, “towed by sea from the Port of Long Beach to offshore wind farms in Central and Northern California.
“As society transitions to clean energy, our harbor is ideally located for such an enterprise,” he added. “With calm seas behind a federal breakwater, one of the deepest and widest channels in the U.S., direct access to the open ocean and no air height restrictions. No other location has the space to achieve the economies of scale needed to drive down the cost of energy for these huge turbines.”
The building components are so massive and heavy, Plezia said in her presentation, that they are too big to transport by road or rail.
Instead, she said, the components will have to be brought in by sea to the proposed “floating” Pier Wind structure in the port.
Those pieces would thenbe fully assembled on that space and, when completed, would be sent out by sea to their various offshore locations along the California coastline.
The location, Plezia said, has direct access to the ocean and is “out of the way” of other operations.
Lessons learned from similar operations along the East Coast, she said, will help with the ramp up.
While there have been concerns that the structures in the Northeast could be causing whale deaths in that area, federal scientists have said there is no evidence that the development of offshore wind power are linked to whales washing ashore.
The project, Cordero said, also expands the traditional “DNA” of the container port toward a “portfolio that’s diverse and also gives us a multi-use terminal” for added revenue.
Responding to questions by Commissioner Bonnie Lowenthal, Cordero said the project will provide additional, diversified jobs that will be important in the future.
“Building Pier Wind lays the foundation for a zero carbon energy future,” Long Beach harbor commission President Sharon L. Weissman said in prepared comments, “not only for the public but for our operations as well. Offshore wind is essential to the Port of Long Beach’s own goals to transition to zero emissions, and ensuring there is a ready supply of reliable, resilient, and renewable power is vital for the work we do to moving commerce.”
Source: Orange County Register
Be First to Comment