Who is developing the proposed Humboldt offshore wind project?

The German energy company RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, LLC (4) provisionally won the lease for OCS-P 0561 (5), shown in blue on the map above and comprising 63,338 acres, for $157.7 million. RWE signed a lease in June 2023, and has named its Humboldt wind project the Canopy Offshore Wind Farm (6). Their lease allows RWE the possibility of developing a wind farm, but does not guarantee it, as there are a number of additional steps to be taken for environmental assessment, project design, and permitting that must first be completed. For over 20 years, RWE has built and now operates 19 offshore wind farms across the globe, including 2.3 gigawatts (GW) of fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines in the New York Bight (7) (a term used to describe six areas off the coast of New York and New Jersey where wind farms can be developed). They have also developed and now operate several dozen onshore wind and solar farms across the U.S. and the world. You can contact RWE regarding the Canopy Offshore Wind Farm here (8).

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The Danish clean energy company Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) (9) provisionally won the lease for OCS-P 0562 (10), shown in pink on the map above and comprising 69,031 acres, for $173.8 million, and signed a lease in June 2023. With 12 offices around the world, CIP invests in renewable energy infrastructure projects, including offshore and onshore wind, solar photovoltaics, biomass and energy-from-waste, transmission and distribution, reserve capacity, storage, advanced bioenergy, and Power-to-X. ​​CIP’s Humboldt wind farm project is being developed by Vineyard Offshore (11), currently under the name California North Floating, LLC (10). You can contact Vineyard Offshore here (12).

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Watch this video from BOEM discussing offshore wind’s history, how it works, and the steps the agency takes to work with many stakeholders when planning offshore wind development (13):