Floating California Wind Turbines • If Democrats Take the House • Abandoned Oil, Gas Wells

Floating wind turbines could generate electricity off California’s coast within a decade, but first, developers need to overcome environmental, technical, and economic challenges.

Castle Energy LLC and the Redwood Coast Energy Authority are two developers looking to build floating wind farms off of Eureka, Morro Bay, and Diablo Canyon, Calif., after the Trump administration took the first steps this month toward leasing those waters for wind development.

The first floating offshore wind turbine off La Turballe, France, on Sept. 28, 2018. The technology could soon be coming to the California coast.

Photographer: Sebastien Salom Gomis/AFP/Getty Images

The hitch is that no offshore wind turbines are currently operating off the West Coast, with only a handful generating power in other places. Challenges include potential military, bird life, and ...