A rising tide for renewable energy: First-ever California offshore wind auction nets $757M

THE FIRST-EVER auction for leases to build massive wind farms off California’s coast netted final bids of $757.1 million Tuesday, signaling the beginning of a competitive market for a new industry producing carbon-free electricity. 

The auction — the first on the West Coast — included five sites about 20 miles off Morro Bay and Humboldt County, totaling 583 square miles of deep ocean waters. The leases from the federal government are the first step in a years-long regulatory process that could culminate in the nation’s first commercial-scale floating wind turbines off California’s coast.