The geology of the west coast of the United States poses specific and unique technical challenges: steep seabed slopes, earthquake risks, very deep waters, and other variables. Moderated by Noe Rouxel, who leads DNV’s floating offshore wind advisory service in North America, our experts will present some of the unique aspects of offshore wind in California through different phases of project development:

Permitting: Caitlin O’Mara (Senior Engineer, Offshore Permitting) will present some of the unique environmental and permitting challenges that developers are likely to face in California.

Design: Eric Ntambakwa (Geotechnical Engineer) will discuss typical geological, geotechnical and geophysical constraints developers should take into consideration ahead of investment decisions, and how these aspects will affect development in the California Wind Energy Area.

Certification: These seabed characteristics and extreme water depths will require mooring and cable configurations never implemented before in the industry. Armita Mohammadian (Renewables Certification Project Manager) will touch upon those new configurations and how it will impact the CVA process.

Construction: The construction and installation of at least five commercial scale offshore wind projects on the west coast will mobilize multiple vessels and will require tremendous port infrastructure and space which are currently not available. Paul Herrington (Naval Architect, Marine Warranty Surveyor) will present these challenges and the potential solutions to overcome them.