The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s latest offshore wind auction in the central Atlantic provisionally awarded a lease with around 2 GW of potential capacity to Equinor, and a lease with 2 GW to 4 GW of potential capacity to Dominion Energy, the agency announced Wednesday.
The sale netted $92.65 million and “resulted in over $23 million total bidding credits,” BOEM said in a release. “These bidding credits will result in over $11 million in investments for workforce training and domestic supply chain, and an additional $11 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.”
Equinor bid $75 million for 101,443 acres located 26 miles from the mouth of the Delaware Bay, the company said. Dominion Energy said it bid $17.7 million for 176,505-acre lease area off the coast of Virginia Beach, “adjacent and to the east of” the lease area where the company is constructing its 2.6-GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
In July, Dominion acquired another nearby lease, agreeing to buy the 40,000-acre Kitty Hawk Wind North lease area from Avangrid and announcing that if the deal goes through, that lease area will be renamed CVOW South.
"Offshore wind is critical to our all-of-the-above approach to meet the unprecedented growth of our customer electric demand over the next decade," said Dominion Energy Chairman and CEO Robert Blue. "Winning this lease area gives us another low-cost option to meet that growing demand while providing our customers with reliable, affordable and increasing clean energy."
CVOW is expected to become operational in late 2026, as is Equinor’s existing Empire Wind project offshore New York. Empire Wind is set to deliver a total of 2 GW to the grid.
“Equinor’s interest in this auction is consistent with our approach to pursue attractive offshore wind opportunities in the United States,” said Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas. “The central Atlantic region has a rapidly growing demand for electricity with widespread support for adding renewable sources of energy into the power mix.”
The company’s new provisionally awarded lease is a “long-term option with first power post-2035,” and the company “will take a disciplined approach to minimize risk and mature a robust project in our portfolio,” said Pål Eitrheim, executive vice president of Equinor Renewables.
