MORRO BAY, CA and HOUSTON, TX (March 2, 2022) – Trident Winds Inc. is pleased to announce the entry of TotalEnergies into Castle Wind LLC joint venture and the project team.
“Castle Wind welcomes TotalEnergies, with its deep commitment to renewable energy, to the joint venture and the project team,” said Alla Weinstein, CEO of Castle Wind. “We have come a long way since first identifying the opportunity for offshore wind development in California in 2016 and stand today at the precipice of a generational opportunity to secure California’s clean energy future. We are excited to begin the next chapter of this journey. TotalEnergies’ experience and expertise, with more than 10,000 MW of offshore wind projects under development, will be invaluable as we work towards making offshore wind a reality in California.”
“TotalEnergies is pleased to bring our global expertise in deploying efficient, large-scale offshore assets to Castle Wind in California. The work completed by the teams in the last years has laid a solid foundation with the local communities, and we look forward to working with them to bring clean energy to the state,” said David Foulon, Head of U.S. Offshore Wind at TotalEnergies. “This partnership in Castle Wind is another important step for TotalEnergies to contribute to the U.S. offshore wind industry ramp-up, and to fulfill its global ambition of becoming a top five producer of renewable energy worldwide by 2030.”
Castle Wind LLC was formed in 2018 to pursue the development of a 1,000 megawatt offshore wind project on the Central Coast of California. This project is poised to help address climate change while creating good paying jobs and a new carbon-free energy resource for the state. Castle Wind is dedicated to providing maximum benefits to local communities and results to date include the signing of a Mutual Benefits Agreement with two local commercial fishing organizations, a Community Benefits Agreement with the City of Morro Bay, and a Memorandum of Understanding with Central Coast Community Energy for energy delivery from the project. Entry of TotalEnergies and its world-class renewable energy team into the joint venture will build on this momentum to further bolster the project ahead of the anticipated Bureau of Ocean Energy Management lease sale in late 2022.
TotalEnergies entry into Castle Wind LLC is effective as of February 25, 2022. For questions or more information, please contact [email protected].
About Castle Wind
Castle Wind LLC is a joint venture between Trident Winds Inc. and TotalEnergies. Castle Wind was created to bring online a floating offshore wind farm with of approximately 1,000 MW capacity of clean, renewable energy to California.
About Trident Winds
Trident Winds Inc. was established in 2015 to utilize prior permitting expertise in the marine environment for the development of deep-water offshore wind projects using maturing floating offshore wind technologies. The Trident Winds team brings extensive experience in permitting, technology, utilities and energy markets to the Castle Wind LLC.
TotalEnergies and offshore wind
TotalEnergies is already developing a portfolio of offshore wind projects with a total capacity of more than 10 GW, of which 2/3 are bottom-fixed and 1/3 are floating. These projects are located in the United Kingdom (Seagreen project, Outer Dowsing, Erebus, ScotWind), South Korea (Bada project), Taiwan (Yunlin project), France (Eolmed project) and the United States (New York Bight project). The Company has also been qualified to participate in competitive tenders in the UK and France and will also participate in a tender in Norway.
About TotalEnergies in the U.S.
Operating in the United States since 1957, TotalEnergies is focused on identifying opportunities in the evolving U.S. energy market to meet growing energy needs while reducing carbon emissions. The Company is developing a number of solar and energy storage projects in the U.S., targeting 4 gigawatts in cumulative capacity by 2025. It is also positioning itself in the high-potential U.S. offshore wind market by developing a multi-gigawatt offshore windfarm off the East Coast and launching a joint venture to explore floating offshore wind opportunities off the Coasts of the United States.
About TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies on a global scale: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our 105,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, clean, reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.
TotalEnergies and renewable electricity
As part of its ambition to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies is building a portfolio of activities in renewables and electricity. At the end of 2021, TotalEnergies’ gross renewable electricity generation capacity is more than 10 GW. TotalEnergies will continue to expand this business to reach 35 GW of gross production capacity from renewable sources and storage by 2025, and then 100 GW by 2030 with the objective of being among the world’s top 5 producers of electricity from wind and solar energy.