Giving Compass' Take:

· According to the Surfrider Foundation, Ideol, a French offshore wind energy developer, has applied to do wind-speed testing off the coast of California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

· How can donors invest in clean and renewable energy sources like wind farms? 

· Check out this article about the U.S. energy landscape and the potential of wind energy to learn more.

If proponents are successful, clusters of offshore wind turbines will dot the waters off California’s coast in the near future. In order to ensure any offshore renewable energy projects move forward with the utmost care for the ocean environment, Surfrider staff have participated in planning and development processes for the past several years. After a quiet couple months, August brought a number of opportunities to engage on proposed projects in both state and federal waters.

Development of offshore wind energy has long been a struggle for California. Areas with strong and consistent winds, like Northern California, lack the infrastructure to distribute energy to the rest of the state, and areas with sufficient infrastructure, like Southern California, lack the necessary winds. Meanwhile, areas in the Central Coast provides the right mix of wind and infrastructure but the Department of Defense (DOD) essentially declared the Central Coast off limits to offshore renewables due to the proximity of Vandenberg Air Force Base and military training sites.

That changed recently when Ideol, a French offshore wind energy developer, surprised the stakeholders and environmental advocates by applying for a lease through California’s State Lands Commission (SLC) to do wind-speed testing in state waters off the coast of Vandenberg Air Force Base. Developers  hope to ultimately generate wind energy to power the base’s operations. Although representatives of Ideol had reached out to NGOs – including Surfrider – in 2018, the project discussed at the time differed from what appeared on the SLC agenda. Lacking current outreach from the company or the state, Surfrider joined with Audubon, Natural Resources Defense Council, The Nature Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity and the California Coastal Protection Network to ask for a continuance of the lease application until the SLC’s next meeting in October.

Read the full article about wind energy by Jennifer Savage at the Surfrider Foundation.