Ocean Winds, CPP JV Golden State Wind Wins 2 GW California Wind Energy Lease

Ocean Winds and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) have said that their newly formed offshore wind joint venture – Golden State Wind – was awarded an 80,418-acre lease area by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the Morro Bay area off the central coast of California.

The lease area awarded, OCS-P 0564, is one of five sites off the coast of California that was the subject of an auction held by BOEM. Ocean Wind said that this auction is particularly notable as it is the first floating offshore wind lease sale in the country, and the first offshore wind lease sale of any kind, on the West Coast of the USA.

Golden State Wind’s winning bid for lease area OCS-P 0564 was $150.3 million, with Ocean Wind and CPP Investments each maintaining a 50% investment in the project. When fully built out and operational, the lease area could accommodate approximately 2 GW of offshore wind energy, generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 900,000 homes.

Ocean Wind said that the project will bring the U.S. and California closer to meeting their clean energy goals of 15 GW of floating offshore wind generation by 2035 in the U.S. and 5 GW by 2030 in California.

As part of Golden State Wind’s winning bid, Ocean Wind and CPP Investments commit to investing $30 million in workforce development and supply chain initiatives and to work closely with key local stakeholders to maximize the benefits to California from the emerging offshore wind industry.

Michael Brown, CEO, Ocean Winds, North America, noted, “We are pleased to partner with CPP Investments on this project and believe this will be the start of a strong relationship that may extend to future projects in other geographies.”

Bruce Hogg, MD, CPP Investments, stated that this opportunity to help accelerate the transition to lower-carbon sources of energy for Californians and, more broadly, to serve as an example for other jurisdictions. He said, “This investment aligns well with our efforts to reduce carbon emissions across our portfolio while continuing to deliver strong, long-term risk-adjusted returns for the Fund’s contributors and beneficiaries.”

The Players

Ocean Wind delves into floating offshore wind for the past 10 years, most notably through the development and operation of Wind float Atlantic, the world’s first fully commercially operational floating offshore wind farm. Ocean Wind has a substantial portfolio of floating projects in Europe and South Korea and is ideally positioned to bring this technology to the Golden State.

Ocean Wind has nearly 3.7 GW of floating wind projects in development or operations in Portugal, France, South Korea, and the UK – and its ready to bring its expertise to the USA.

CPP Investments’ Sustainable Energies group is active across the global energy system, with net assets totaling approximately C$30 billion as of September 30, 2022, including investments in renewables, utilities, and power generation.