The US government has decided to advance areas northwest of Morro Bay and off Humboldt County, California, for offshore wind development. With these two initial areas, the US is opening up the Pacific Coast for first commercial scale offshore wind projects.

The two areas could accommodate up to 4.6 GW of installed offshore wind capacity, 3 GW of which could be installed in the Morro Bay area, as identified by the Department of the Interior, in coordination with the Department of Defense. Located off California’s central coast region, northwest of Morro Bay, the area spans 399 square miles (around 1,033 square kilometres).