Three offshore wind farm studies are in the works around SLO County after the Board of Supervisors voted to approve studies of the waterfront infrastructure of Port San Luis, the Cal Poly Pier, and Morro Bay.
During its Sept. 10 meeting, the board agreed to use a $1 million state grant awarded to the county in 2022 to support a study to assess the technical suitability of those areas to support potential wind farms.
Mott McDonald—a global engineering company—will separate its work into two studies: one for San Luis Obispo Bay, which includes Port San Luis and the Cal Poly Pier, and one for Morro Bay.
"The scope of work for each study includes the following: project kick-off meetings, basis of assessments and existing conditions assessment, navigation and dredging assessment, environmental and permitting assessment, conceptual waterfront infrastructure and design, and costs estimate," according to the staff report.
The grant is part of California's Deep-Water Port Feasibility Study for Offshore Wind Procurement and both studies are expected to run parallel with each other.
After a long public comment period where several county residents voiced their disdain for wind farms off the Central Coast, 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg said those comments were why studies are so important. There's a lot of misinformation, she said, and people are "scared to death."
"For us not to go forth with this study would be completely irresponsible. We have the electrification of the maritime industry that's happening, we have the need to support other ocean users, whether it's recreation, commercial fishermen, our tourism industry," she said. "Our tourism industry comes in No. 2 here. These are all important and have relationship to this. We have the long-term job, and it's great that people are retired and can go kayak and do these things, but we have to think about the future and the children of the future and what they're going to be doing."
This isn't the first time Ortiz-Legg has voiced her support for wind farm support feasibility studies. During an Aug. 27 Port San Luis Harbor District meeting, residents were upset that commissioners voted on July 23 to move forward with Clean Energy Terminals (CET) on a study about whether Port San Luis could potentially support offshore wind development.
Ortiz-Legg came to the commissioner's defense during public comment in August, thanking the district for a staff report that she felt provided the community with a thorough background and information on offshore wind.
"When I look at the past, I think that must have been really hard for change when they took out the railroad that came into the port, and it must have been hard when the change happened when the people's harbor was taken out of the area that is now Pirates Cove," she said. "Change is really challenging for us but can really be a lot of positives as well." Δ