The board of California's Port San Luis Harbor District has approved entering into a project evaluation agreement with Clean Energy Terminals (CET), a developer of offshore wind port facilities across the United States, on the joint evaluation of the technical and commercial feasibility of an offshore wind operations and maintenance (O&M) port facility in San Luis Obispo Bay.
The facility could be utilised by multiple wind projects located in federal waters off California's Central Coast. If an O&M facility is found to be feasible, the agreement also sets out a pathway for parties to negotiate a lease option and subsequent long-term lease for the project's development and operations.
Project evaluation is scheduled to take between six and 18 months, with development of an O&M facility taking six to eight years in total, subject to permitting and the timing of California's offshore wind projects. Any future lease option or long-term lease agreement will require a separate Harbor District Board approval.
Recent port studies and public feedback have suggested that larger offshore wind-related port facilities, such as the staging and integration ports under development in Humboldt Bay and Long Beach, are not well-suited to the Central Coast. Instead, smaller facilities such as O&M ports, which are typically no more than five acres (two hectares) in size and support vessels that come into port approximately once every other week, could be a good fit for the region.
Upon completion, the facility will be the first offshore wind operations and maintenance port on the US West Coast.