What's Being Proposed?
What Is Being Proposed for Humboldt Bay?
Understanding what is being proposed for Humboldt Bay requires looking beyond any single project. The plans discussed for our region comprise three interconnected components: offshore wind development in federal waters off Humboldt County, a major new heavy-lift marine terminal on Humboldt Bay, and new electrical transmission infrastructure to move large amounts of electricity from the North Coast to California's larger electrical grid.
Each piece has its own planning, permitting, environmental review, funding, and regulatory process. Together, however, they represent the potential for significant changes to Humboldt Bay, the surrounding coastline, and inland areas of Northern California.
Offshore Wind Comes to the North Coast
Federal consideration of offshore wind development off Humboldt County dates back several years.
In 2018, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, began seeking industry interest and public input regarding potential commercial wind-energy leasing off the coasts of Northern and Central California.
The process continued over the following years, and in 2021 federal and state agencies announced an agreement to advance offshore wind planning off California's North and Central coasts.
BOEM ultimately designated the Humboldt Wind Energy Area, located approximately 20 miles offshore of Northern California. The designated area encompasses approximately 206 square miles, or 132,000 acres, of federal ocean waters.
In 2022, BOEM completed an environmental review associated with the offering of leases and the conduct of initial site assessment and characterization activities in the Humboldt Wind Energy Area.
That review was an important step in the federal leasing process, but it was not an environmental review or approval of the construction and operation of a fully developed offshore wind project. BOEM's process calls for additional environmental review if and when a developer submits a specific Construction and Operations Plan for an offshore wind project.
The 2022 Offshore Wind Lease Sale
In December 2022, BOEM held the first federal offshore wind lease auction on the Pacific Coast.
Five lease areas off California were auctioned—three near Morro Bay and two off Humboldt County. The five winning bids totaled more than $757 million.
The two Humboldt-area leases were:
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OCS-P 0561, originally awarded to RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, LLC, with the lease interest later held under Canopy Offshore Wind.
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OCS-P 0562, awarded to California North Floating LLC.
At the time, these leases were viewed as the foundation for development of a new floating offshore wind industry off the North Coast.
Because the waters off Humboldt County are too deep for conventional fixed-bottom wind turbines, the technology contemplated for this area involves floating offshore wind turbines. The turbine structures would be assembled on floating foundations, towed to their offshore locations, anchored to the seafloor, and connected through subsea electrical cables.
A Major Change in 2026
The offshore wind landscape has changed substantially since those leases were awarded.
Federal offshore wind policy shifted following the change in presidential administrations in 2025, creating significant uncertainty for projects that had not yet received federal construction approvals.
Then, in August 2026, RWE announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior under which the company would relinquish its U.S. offshore wind leases, including its lease off Humboldt County.
That means the original vision of two lease areas being developed off Humboldt County has changed.
As of August 2026, the California North Floating lease represents the remaining Humboldt-area offshore wind lease from the original 2022 auction, while the future of offshore wind development off the North Coast continues to depend upon federal policy, permitting, economics, transmission availability, developer decisions, and other factors.
This recent change is important because many of the plans and economic assumptions developed for Humboldt Bay were created when both Humboldt lease areas were expected to move toward development.
The Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal
Separate from the offshore wind leases themselves, the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District has been developing plans for the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project.
The Harbor District proposes redeveloping approximately 180 acres on the Samoa Peninsula at the existing Redwood Marine Terminal I site.
According to the Harbor District's project description, the facility would be a new multipurpose, heavy-lift marine terminal designed primarily to support the offshore wind industry while potentially accommodating other coastal-dependent industrial uses in the future.
The Harbor District describes Humboldt Bay as a potential staging and integration port for floating offshore wind.
This distinction is important.
The proposal is not simply for offshore turbines somewhere beyond the horizon. A significant portion of the activity required to deploy those turbines would take place within Humboldt Bay.
What Would Happen at the Terminal?
Under the current proposal, the major offshore wind turbine components would not be manufactured in Humboldt County. Instead, the components would be manufactured elsewhere and transported to Humboldt Bay, primarily by large ocean-going vessels.
The proposed Heavy Lift Marine Terminal would provide the specialized waterfront infrastructure and large staging areas necessary to receive those components, store and move them, assemble—or “integrate”—them into floating wind turbine generators, and prepare the completed structures for deployment offshore.
According to the Humboldt Bay Harbor District's current project description, activities at the terminal would include:
Receiving turbine components. Large components—including turbine blades, tower sections, floating foundations and other turbine equipment—would be transported into Humboldt Bay by ship and unloaded at the terminal. Anchors, mooring lines, chains and other equipment needed to secure the floating turbines offshore would also be imported through the terminal.
Staging and storage. The components would be moved onto large upland staging areas where they could be stored, organized and prepared for assembly. The terminal is being designed specifically to accommodate the extraordinary size and weight of floating offshore wind equipment.
Assembly and integration. At specialized heavy-lift wharves, massive cranes would be used to assemble the imported components. Towers, nacelles, and blades would be integrated with the floating foundations to create complete floating wind turbine generators.
This is one reason the proposed terminal's scale is so significant. The Harbor District's project description anticipates fixed-position quayside ring cranes capable of working hundreds of feet above the terminal in order to assemble these very large structures.
Pre-commissioning. Once assembled, turbines could undergo additional work and preparation at designated berths before leaving Humboldt Bay.
Wet storage. Floating foundations and assembled or partially assembled turbine structures could be temporarily stored in designated areas of the Bay while awaiting the next stage of deployment.
Moving completed turbines through Humboldt Bay. Once assembled and ready for deployment, the floating turbines would be moved from the terminal through Humboldt Bay and the entrance channel.
Towing the turbines offshore. Rather than being carried fully assembled aboard another vessel, the completed floating wind turbines would be towed out of Humboldt Bay to their offshore locations, where they would ultimately be connected to mooring systems anchored to the seafloor.
In simple terms, the proposed process would be:
SHIP COMPONENTS IN → UNLOAD → STAGE → ASSEMBLE/INTEGRATE → MOVE THROUGH THE BAY → TOW OFFSHORE
This distinction is important. Humboldt Bay is not currently proposed as the place where the major turbine components would be manufactured. It is proposed as the staging, assembly, integration and deployment port for enormous floating offshore wind structures manufactured elsewhere.
That role would bring the offshore wind supply chain directly into Humboldt Bay, with large vessels delivering components, heavy-lift operations occurring on the Samoa Peninsula, floating structures being staged in and around the terminal, and completed turbines traveling through the Bay before being towed to sea.
The Terminal Is Intended to Serve More Than Humboldt's Offshore Wind Leases
Another important part of the proposal is its scale and intended purpose.
The Harbor District has described Humboldt Bay as potentially serving not only offshore wind development immediately off Humboldt County, but the broader floating offshore wind industry along the West Coast.
California has established ambitious offshore wind goals, and Humboldt Bay has been identified in state and federal planning as a potentially important port because very few West Coast ports have the combination of deep-water access and available industrial land needed to assemble and deploy floating offshore wind structures.
The Harbor District's plans therefore contemplate a terminal capable of serving offshore wind projects beyond the original two Humboldt lease areas.
The District has also intentionally described the facility as multipurpose. Its planning documents state that the site could eventually accommodate other maritime and coastal-dependent activities, including breakbulk cargo, dry bulk, wood-product manufacturing or shipping, cargo storage and transportation, and other uses requiring heavy-lift wharves and large industrial laydown areas.
This means the decisions being made today about the terminal could shape the industrial use of this portion of Humboldt Bay for decades, regardless of how quickly offshore wind development itself proceeds.
Getting the Electricity to Shore
Building offshore wind turbines is only one part of the infrastructure required.
Electricity generated offshore must be collected and transmitted to shore through subsea electrical cables.
Those cables would travel from offshore wind facilities toward the coast, cross from federal waters into state waters, make landfall, and connect with onshore electrical infrastructure.
From there, another challenge begins.
Humboldt County is geographically isolated from California's major electrical transmission system. The existing North Coast transmission network was not designed to export several gigawatts of new electricity generated offshore.
Large-scale offshore wind development therefore creates the need for substantial new transmission infrastructure.
The Overland Transmission Question
State energy planners have been studying how electricity generated off Humboldt County could be moved from the North Coast to the larger California grid.
Among the concepts evaluated by the California Energy Commission are major new high-voltage transmission corridors extending east from the Humboldt Bay area toward the Sacramento Valley.
One transmission corridor evaluated by the state would run from Humboldt Bay toward Cottonwood in Shasta County, with additional connections toward the larger high-voltage transmission system.
The state study evaluates potential routes across Northern California, including corridors that would cross rural areas, forestlands and agricultural lands between Humboldt Bay and the Sacramento Valley.
These are not small neighborhood power lines.
The concepts being studied involve major high-voltage transmission infrastructure capable of moving very large quantities of electricity out of the Humboldt region.
Exactly where future transmission lines, substations, access roads and associated infrastructure would ultimately be located has not been finally determined. Any future project would be subject to additional planning, routing, permitting and environmental review.
But transmission is a critical part of understanding the larger offshore wind proposal.
Electricity generated off Humboldt County cannot simply enter the existing local grid at this scale without major transmission improvements.
Why We Are Paying Attention
Humboldt Bay is not an empty industrial site waiting to be put to use.
It is already working.
It supports commercial fishing, shellfish farming, shellfish nurseries, maritime businesses, recreation, tourism, wildlife habitat, eelgrass, wetlands and generations of families whose livelihoods are tied to the Bay.
Save Humboldt Bay supports thoughtful, responsible economic development, including the development of renewable energy. We believe renewable energy development and the protection of Humboldt County’s existing resource-based industries should not be an either/or choice.
That does not mean Humboldt County should reject change, renewable energy, or new economic opportunities.
It does mean that proposals of this magnitude deserve careful scrutiny.
Questions about dredging, sediment disturbance, vessel traffic, water quality, marine biosecurity, fisheries, eelgrass, aquaculture, shoreline habitat, navigation, land use, transmission corridors, working lands, public investment and long-term economic assumptions deserve clear answers.
And as the offshore wind industry, federal policy, project economics and individual lease status continue to change, we believe the assumptions underlying major public investments should be updated as well.
Save Humboldt Bay exists to help our community understand what is being proposed, follow the process, ask questions, examine the available information, and advocate for the long-term health and productivity of Humboldt Bay.
We encourage you to read the source documents, explore the maps and studies, follow the permitting processes, attend public meetings, and reach your own conclusions.
Do Your Own Research:
