-January 20,2023-
Here is the latest NOAA graphic for California rain and snow. Southern Sierra got 15 feet of snow! Giant Forest got an additional 30 inches of rain over the past 3 weeks.
Category: Central Coast
Castle Wind – the prime mover in pushing for Morro Bay wind project, left out in latest government auction
-December 8,2022-
This month the US government auctioned 5 leases off the California coast to companies who will build floating wind turbines some 25 miles offshore. The abundant blowing wind is expected to light up 1.5 million homes a decade from now or sooner. The five leases, final as of Dec 7, are valued at $757 million.
The Morro Bay coastal waters will see three of these projects connected by undersea cables to power substations in Morro Bay and Diablo Canyon. Humboldt will see two more.
This just didn’t happen here by chance. There was a prime mover to launch this huge project, a company called Trident Winds and its founder Russian-born engineer Alla Weinstein who pioneered the Morro Bay-specific effort 8 years ago. They have been lobbying at the city, county, state and federal levels and meeting with local stakeholders. That includes negotiating with a skeptical local fishing industry to allow deep water wind turbines in their fishing grounds to help meet demand for non-carbon renewable energy that advocates feel could help save the planet.
Shore infrastructure in place
After researching the idea, Weinstein found that there is indeed abundant wind off Central Coast shores and critically pointed out that there was existing unused transmission infrastructure onshore that could be tapped to connect thousands of offshore megawatts to the California grid. That included multi- millions of dollars of existing transmission lines connected to the mothballed Morro Bay gas powered power plant and the Diablo Canyon nuclear power facility, set to be mothballed by time the wind turbines might be operating.
In 2016 Weinstein and her new company Trident Winds (later Castle Wind) submitted an unsolicited lease request to a federal agency to put 100 floating offshore wind platforms in US waters – some 33 miles north of Morro Bay. That started the ball rolling.
In 2015, the Tribune wrote ” In a generation or two, offshore wind farms could be as common along the California coast as off-shore oil rigs are today. And Morro Bay could be the community where the offshore wind industry gets its start in the Golden State.”
This month that same Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auctioned the leases allowing nearly 40 bidders – many from Europe -who expressed interest in the competitive bidding process off Morro Bay that Mrs Weinstein set in motion back in 2016.
Ironically and sadly for Weinstein and partners, the winners of the bidding did not include their company, the firm that proposed the ambitious effort and that has lobbied at all levels of the government to make it happen.
Weinstein became a familiar face around San Luis Obispo building support for new industry and an idea – tap the wind – not oil- off our shores to fight global warming. Support built for the plan bubbling up right to the top to the President of the US and the State of California who now vows to permit 5,000MW once built out.
A bummer
Among those who feel badly for Weinstein and hailed her efforts is the president of the Morro Bay Fishermen, Tom Hafer, who worked closely with her and their team for years telling this reporter that their loss was “just a bummer” given all the time Weinstein spent in Morro Bay working on details with city and the fishing community to avoid a local war over this new ocean venture.
As a part of lengthy negotiations,the city,Weinstein and the fishermen agreed to form the Morro Bay Lease Areas Mutual Benefits Corporation that will be open to all developers and qualified fishermen; it was announced in October of this year. The pact is modeled after an agreement between international cable companies and the local fishing industry some years back. The new agreement includes the California Coastal Commission that hopefully will ensure followthrough by the winning wind companies even though Castle Wind was not one of them.
In a news release in October, Weinstein explained the need for mitigation for the fishing industry, Morro Bay’s claim to fame.
“With any energy project of this magnitude, there are likely to be impacts. Our approach has been to acknowledge, as early as possible, that impacts may occur, which is why we have been working directly with the Central Coast fishermen since the inception of Castle Wind. By establishing the Morro Bay MBC at this early stage in the process, Castle Wind has created a platform for the developers to mitigate anticipated impacts of offshore wind to the commercial fishing industry…”
In an email to this reporter Weinstein said she and her company are of course “disappointed that Castle Wind, our joint venture partnership with TotalEnergies, did not win a lease in the BOEM auction.” Still she and her company were the first advocates for “a multi-factor auction format that helps ensure local affected communities share in the benefits of offshore wind and that any impacts of offshore wind development are mitigated.” So the auction included credit for working with local stakeholders besides the dollar amount of the bid.
“Trident Winds is proud of the work we did to initiate development of the offshore wind market in California, beginning with the submittal of its unsolicited lease request in January 2016. From those early days, Trident Winds established itself as a leader in the development of a new offshore wind industry that recognizes all voices must have a seat at the table and ensures an equitable distribution of benefits to affected stakeholders. This led to the establishment of a Community Benefits Agreement with the City of Morro Bay, the creation of a Mutual Benefits Corporation with the Central Coast fishing community. The move should ” incentivize other developers to make the same commitments.”
A BOEM release Dec 7 says “The lease sale included a 20-percent credit for bidders who committed to a monetary contribution to programs or initiatives that support workforce training programs for the floating offshore wind industry, the development of a U.S. domestic supply chain for the floating offshore wind energy industry, or both. This credit will result in over $117 million in investments for these critical programs or initiatives.
The auction also included 5% credits for bidders who committed to entering community benefit agreements (CBAs). The first type of agreement is a Lease Area Use CBA with communities, stakeholder groups, or Tribal entities whose use of the lease areas or use of the resources harvested from the lease areas is expected to be impacted by offshore wind development. The second type of agreement is a General CBA with communities, Tribes, or stakeholder groups that are expected to be affected by the potential impacts on the marine, coastal or human environment from lease development.”
Moving on themselves, Weinstein vows to continue working on offshore wind projects elsewhere in the US including in the state of Washington where they are launching a new project.
So who were the winners of the Central Coast auction?
Ocean Winds – a partnership between French and Portuguese-based firms – and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board have formed a joint venture called Golden State Wind.The JV was awarded an 80,418-acre lease area by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management this month off Morro Bay.
When fully built out the lease area could accommodate about 2,000MW of offshore wind energy, generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 900,000 homes. This will bring the U.S. and California closer to meeting their clean energy goals of 15 GW of floating offshore wind generation by 2035 in the U.S. and 5 GW by 2030 in California.
Another Morro Bay lease was won by Equinor Wind US LLC who made the winning $130 million bid for a similar size 80,062-acre lease in the Morro Bay area. Equinor Wind is an arm of Equinor, based in Norway.
The last Morro Bay lease was won by Invenergy-California Offshore LLC, based in Chicago, a similar size.
If all three produce 2 GW- that is 6GW of power!
Two important points
Two more points to conclude with. Despite appreciating the efforts to mitigate the effects on the local fishing industry Hafer is still skeptical about the potential harmful effect of this new industry on their livelihoods including fears that this new technology – floating wind -may not work as promised.
Secondly readers should appreciate that bringing in 5,000MW will depend on Diablo Canyon infrastructure and transmission lines that will be needed, requiring the nuclear power plant to go offline before offshore wind comes online.
Around SLO County: Nordstrom Rack coming /new storm / Mind Body
-November 3,2022-
Fall fire danger low
As we enter November, persistently cooler conditions with intermittent rounds of moisture will help to significantly improve the fuel moisture and humidity levels, effectively limiting the risk of fire starts and spreads.
For Northern California the KCRA 3 Fire Threat Index has been lowered to “low” for the Valley, Foothills, Coastal hills and Sierra regions.
New storm for California
New cold storm coming into most of California November 8/9 according to the latest GFS weather model. Southern Sierra saw .75 to 1.3 inches of precipitation in the latest early November storm.
Layoffs at Mind Body
San Luis Obispo-based Mind Body Inc has filed an official WARN Notice with the state announcing they are permanently laying off 94 workers as of November 1.The tank Farm Rd company that makes software for gyms promoting physical fitness has put several their properties on the market. The company is said to have 1300 employees worldwide.
Nordstrom Rack to Open New Location in San Luis Obispo
new store will be next to Bed Bath &Beyond
SEATTLE, Nov. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Seattle-based fashion retailer Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN) has announced plans to open a new Nordstrom Rack in the fall of 2023. The new store will be located in SLO Promenade in San Luis Obispo, California.
“We look forward to opening this new Nordstrom Rack location in the San Luis Obispo community, strengthening our network of stores and introducing new customers to Nordstrom Rack’s unique product offering,” said Carl Jenkins, Senior Vice President of Nordstrom Rack Stores. “In addition to shopping the brands they love at a great price, our customers in San Luis Obispo can take full advantage of this convenient new location to pick-up online orders and make returns.”
The 24,000 square-foot store -the former Staples location, long vacan t- is in the SLO Promenade, a popular shopping center that includes Sprouts Farmers Market, REI Co-op, Hobby Lobby, Bed Bath & Beyond and Cost Plus World Market. SLO Promenade is owned and managed by The Kroenke Group and is ideally located off of Madonna Road and Dalidio Drive. With the addition of this new location, Nordstrom will operate 58 Nordstrom Rack stores, 23 Nordstrom stores, five Nordstrom Locals and one | Nordstrom in California. The store is scheduled to open in fall 2023.
Nordstrom Rack is the off-price retail division of Nordstrom, Inc. and plays a critical role in the company’s Closer to You strategy, which focuses on delivering customers a more convenient and interconnected experience across its stores and digital platforms. Nordstrom Rack offers customers up to 70 percent off on-trend apparel, accessories, beauty, home and shoes from many of the top brands sold at Nordstrom stores as well as core services like online order pickup or Nordstrom.com and NordstromRack.com, easy returns and alterations at select stores. Nordstrom Rack is the largest source of new customers to Nordstrom.
Nordstrom is committed to giving back to the diverse communities where it operates. Since 2019 along with its customers, Nordstrom has donated more than $1.5 million in support of its long-term partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of the United States and Canada. These proceeds support the recruitment, training and engagement of adult mentors and mentorship moments between Bigs and Littles, including preparing for an interview, learning to tie a tie and helping with homework.
SLO Airport traffic stays strong
-October 20,2022-
San Luis Obispo airport traffic in September was up 35% from the same month in 2021 and higher than pre-pandemic numbers in 2019 as well. September saw 49,531 passengers use the new terminal in San Luis Obispo – bound for at least 6 cities served by three airlines.
The airport has seen high number all year as Covid spread has gone down.
For the same month in 2019 prior to the pandemic, the terminal saw 46,488 passengers- some 3000 fewer than this September.
The airport is served by United, American and Alaska -all of who are reporting better traffic across their US networks.This September, Alaska passenger numbers out of SLO were up 24.7%, American up 36% and United up 39%.
The added traffic boosted car rentals at the airport by 28% in September.
While passenger traffic is up here, freight landing weight was down 11% in September but up 11.7% in August.
Lastly, charter traffic this year is mostly higher but down in September by 15% from a year ago.
United says it is not concerned about a recession slowdown this year. “Despite growing concerns about an economic slowdown, the ongoing COVID recovery trends at United continue to prevail and we remain optimistic that we’ll continue to deliver strong financial results in the fourth quarter, 2023 and beyond,” said chief executive officer Scott Kirby.
American Airlines announcement
American Airlines too has announced that they will fly larger aircraft out of SLO to Dallas twice a day on planes that are nearly double the seating.
Los Osos’ Sweet Springs Preserve getting new entrance
Morro Bay Audubon President Judy Neuhauser stands in front of new 3rd street entrance to the Sweet Springs Nature Preserve as workers from SmithCo Construction install improvements
Access to the popular Sweet Springs Nature Preserve is now easier from the north side of the 33-acre bird sanctuary with a new entrance on 3rd Street in Los Osos. Morro Bay Audubon has owned the preserve, criss-crossed with hiking trails and viewing platforms since 1989. They recently acquired a one-acre parcel next to the preserve, allowing a new entrance to be planned.
Visitors can now use the new entrance, says the President of the local Audubon chapter Judy Neuhauser. But please, no dogs.
Last April, the Audubon announced that community members Carole Maurer and John Dilworth donated $300,000 to make the purchase of the land all the way to the intersection of Pismo and 4th. The land was purchased from Kathryn Donovan for $250,00. A stipulation required public access.
Now SmithCo Construction has completed about a 160 ft trail connection to the existing platform trail overlooking the back bay, ironically an old duck blind. Particularly in winter, the estuary is home to thousands of waterfowl that can be seen from two viewing platforms.
Better access is part of the mission for the group, explains Neuhauser “We know that people love Sweet Springs and we want to encourage more visitors to appreciate what is here. If you see it – you will want to preserve it ” she suggests.
Some 240 species have been documented in the wildlife preserve.” We have about 40 that nest,” Neuhauser says.Species found here include great horned owls, peregrine falcons, bald eagles and osprey.
“By providing habitat for birds to nest, and for birds to thrive, we are providing ecological services for the entire community.”
Sweet Springs is wooded in some areas and it opens up to a productive marsh land that is fed by little streams on the property with water from a spring. It overlooks Morro Bay estuary and Morro Rock.
The new entrance happens to be along the way of a popular walk between Los Osos and Baywood. You can access the preserve from the Ramona and 4th Street side as well.
The Morro Coast Audubon Society acquired the 8.3 acre East parcel in 2008. In 2011 they applied to the County of San Luis Obispo for a minor use permit allowing for native plant restoration and public access at East Sweet Springs. In 2017 the permit was approved and East Sweet Springs was improved with boardwalks, signage, benches, viewing blind, and more. Together with West Sweet Springs and Central Sweet Springs and now the latest one-acre addition, the Sweet Springs Nature Preserve will continue to be a place to walk, watch birds, and enjoy a quiet and peaceful natural environment.
The preserve is maintained and improved largely by volunteers who are busy removing invasive veldt grass and ice plant and replanting with native plantings.The preserve has regular work days to make improvements. To find out more about how to support the project, visit morrocoastaudubon.org.
Coastal Commission approves desal plant
-October 15,2022-
from CAL MATTERS
After rejecting a controversial proposal in Huntington Beach, the state Coastal Commission greenlights another in Dana Point. While environmentalists raised concerns, the commission calls it a well-planned project.
The California Coastal Commission today green-lit a $140 million desalination plant in south Orange County’s Dana Point, a pivot from its unanimous rejection in May of another controversial desalination project in the county.
The decision indicates that state regulators see a place for new seawater desalination plants in California to bolster water supplies, particularly for coastal areas with few water sources of their own.
“We believe that the project before you today, although not perfect, provides a solid example that we can use in planning for future desalination,” Kate Huckelbridge, a senior deputy director, told the Coastal Commission.
The South Coast Water District’s Doheny Ocean Desalination project, which the commission unanimously approved, would help serve the district’s roughly 35,000 residents
SLOW home sales in SLO
-October 8,2022-
The California Association of Realtors reports this month that for the first eight months of 2022, sales in San Luis Obispo County continued to drop the sharpest statewide at -28.9 percent, while Yuba (17.7 percent) continued to post the best sales performance of all counties compared to last year.
In August the median sales price of an existing home in San Luis Obispo was $868,500 compared to $895,500 in July, but up from August 2021 when the median price was $770,000.
Home sales in SLO County in August continued the downward trend falling 29.1% from a year earlier while next door Santa Barbara County sales declined 34% year over year.
Pace of SLO home solar installation keeps climbing
Solar plus batteries help keep the lights on during recent heatwave
-October 8,2022-
Solar installers are busy this year in San Luis Obispo County. Through October 1, 2022, local homeowners have installed nearly 2500 solar panel projects, mostly on their roofs, compared to just over 1000 during the same period in 2019, before the pandemic.
The pace has been climbing steadily here with 1052 permits issued in the first 10 months of 2019, 1421 in the same period in 2020, 2052 installs during the same time frame in 2021 and 2464 multi-unit arrays installed so far this year.The panels valuation has reached $46 million so far in 2022. Figures are from the web publication Construction Monitor.
Leading the pack among solar installation companies is SF-based Sunrun with more roof-top installations by far in the county. Sunrun advertises that “you can be your own electric company” adding that with net metering you can balance the amount of electricity you draw from the grid, and how much excess solar electricity you push into it. “So when you use less electricity than you make, you get credit from the utility company.”
Sunrun focuses on a power purchase agreement business model where Sunrun installs and maintains a solar system on a customers home, then sells power to the customer at an agreed upon rate for a 20- or 25-year term. This business model allows property owners to install solar at no upfront cost, but without the benefits (such as tax breaks) or some risks that come with being the owner of the system. The company partners with Costco and The Home Depot to market their products inside the stores. In 2021, the company installed solar systems capable of generating 792 megawatts of power.
Sunrun and others pair battery units with their panels.Having both home solar as well as a linked battery unit does make your household a socially-useful electric company, it turns out, helping to keep California’s lights on when there is a power issue in the area we all learned recently.
An analysis by the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) shows that California had more than 80,000 customer-sited batteries connected to the electric grid capable of providing 900 MW of solar power.
While not all the batteries were set to discharge during the peak hours of 4 p.m. – 9 p.m. on September 6, an estimated 76% were, which as a fleet, were capable of providing up to 684 MW of power at any given moment. CALSSA estimates that 50% of these batteries’ aggregate power was put into use during peak hours, providing approximately 340 MW of power. To put this into perspective, 340 MW is more than a mid-sized power plant.
“The biggest battery in the world is located in garages around California and they are helping keep the lights on for everyone”
When California suffered rolling blackouts in August 2020, California had 30,000 distributed batteries with the potential to discharge 500 MW of power. In just two years, 50,000 consumers added 400 MW of clean sun-charged battery power. The current 900 MW of distributed batteries in California is nearly the size of Diablo Canyon’s Unit 1.
“The biggest battery in the world is located in garages around California and they are helping keep the lights on for everyone,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, CALSSA executive director. “While it goes largely unrecognized by utilities and grid operators, these consumer investments in clean energy played a crucial role during this week’s heat wave helping keep the lights on not just for the homeowners and businesses who made the investment but for everyone.”
In February 2022, Ford announced a partnership that makes Sunrun the official installer of its bidirectional charging station for the F-150 Lightning, allowing customers to charge their truck at home, but also use the vehicle battery for backup power during a grid outage.
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Listing of top ten solar installers in San Luis Obispo county – credit Construction Monitor
photo: credit Sunrun
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Morro Bay ready to zone new housing across Highway 1
Hundred of units likely
-September 6,2022-
The City of Morro Bay is preparing to rezone hillside land across Highway 1 to approve both multi-family and single-family homes on open land, looking to boost the community’s housing stock. Access to the potential new 55 acre area would be from the interchange at Highway 1 and South Bay Blvd.The area would be near the new city wastewater treatment plant.
Last year the city council adopted a statement to “identify the opportunities for additional housing options and /or explore partnerships to support these efforts.” These two residential projects are now in the early stage of mapping and city approvals.
Seashell Cove (see map) owner has completed the environmental work resulting in preparation of a Mitigated Negative Declaration . Presented to Planning Commission on June 7, 2022, but not recommended at the time for approval to City Council.They plan high density residential on the 4.5 acre parcel next to the Bayside care facility, already built. Seashell Cove could be zoned for up to 70 high density units.
The 45 acre parcel next to it (Shepard/ Martz) could be zoned mixed density but using median density as an option, on average could yield 600 housing units.At the end of the most recent discussion in August, the council agreed that staff will work with Shepard/Martz and Seashell to complete environmental work and bring a land use/zoning change to Planning Commission and City Council in early 2023.
Commenting on the significance of the new plan, Community Development director Scot Graham says” Morro Bay has not had a significant apartment complex built in 30 years.” The local chamber has made housing a key issue with not enough units to meet the needs of the big hospitality service workforce in town.
Scout Coffee to start Morro Bay remodel
SLO-based Scout Coffee purchased the vacant Bank of America building in Morro Bay over a year ago. But only this fall will the owners Jon & Sara Peterson start the remodel of the Downtown former Bank of America building according to Morro Bay Community Development Director Scot Graham.The couple has now filed building plans with the city.They plan a coffee roasting plant, coffee shop, bakery and a restaurant.
Mattress retailer to open in SLO
-September 2,2022-
Privately-held retailer Mattress Firm, who call themselves “America’s largest specialty mattress store”, will open a location in San Luis Obispo. The company has some 2400 locations across the US.
The retailer will open at the former Applebee’s Restaurant at the entrance to the SLO Promenade shopping center on Madonna.The eatery closed in both San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles in 2017.It’s taken some 6 years to find a new user for the 5200 sf building.But now construction work at the store is underway.The mattress retailer has a store in Santa Maria.
Realtor Justin Romain of the Lockehouse brokerage confirms the SLO lease estimating it could take 6 months to complete the remodel work allowing the new store to open.
In an expansion mode recently,Mattress Firm has had a tough go of it in the past. The mattress store chain was founded in 1986. The headquarters of the company is in Houston,Texas.
Before its bankruptcy in 2018, the company operated over 3,600 locations in 48 U.S. states. Mattress Firm has been owned by Steinhoff Holdings since 2016.
On October 5, 2018, Mattress Firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.The company planned to break 700 lease contracts by closing 200 unprofitable stores as soon as possible and was considering closing the other 500 stores out of the more than 3,300 it operated at that time.
In November 2018, Mattress Firm emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Asked about how leasing was going at the SLO Promenade shopping center, Romain says his real estate office is working with possible tenants at most of the vacant spaces in the center and adds they just signed a deal with a Crumbl Cookies franchisee.The center is anchored by Sprouts,REI and Hobby Lobby, about ready to open.