Oregon’s first offshore wind lease sale will be held in October, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management planning to auction two areas totaling around 195,000 acres and offering up to 3.1 GW of capacity.
BOEM announced the sale Thursday, and in today’s Federal Register said that the five companies eligible to bid in the auction are Avangrid Renewables, BlueFloat Energy Oregon, OW North American Ventures, US Mainstream Renewable Power and South Coast Energy Waters.
The agency first identified these potential lease areas to the public in August 2023. At that time, the areas encompassed 219,000 acres with a potential 2.6 GW of capacity. One lease area is located 32 miles from shore in Coos Bay, while the other is located 18 miles offshore Brookings.
“The Network fully supports BOEM’s expansion of offshore wind leasing on the West Coast,” said Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock in a Tuesday release. “By answering the call, BOEM and Oregon are aligning with newly enacted DOI policies in support of a clean energy initiative that will help meet the state’s offshore wind goals and create numerous benefits for the region.”
Oceantic noted that the areas offshore Oregon, like wind leases offshore California, will require the deployment of floating wind technology due to the deep waters there. Floating wind is a nascent technology in the U.S., where it’s only been deployed in small pilot programs so far.
However, in 2023, Oceanic praised BOEM for its choice in areas, as the vast majority of the leases covered water less than 1,300 meters deep. “While this depth will require advanced floating technology, it remains within the capability of near-term technological development,” Oceantic said.
Oceantic also said at the time that the capacity offered by the leases is in line with Oregon’s goal of adding 3 GW of offshore wind by 2030.
Regional renewable energy advocacy group Renewable Northwest said in a comment, “At this time, we continue to think [offshore wind] is a crucial resource for meeting Oregon clean energy mandates and maintaining system reliability, but we are waiting until after the bid deposits are due to determine the significance of the announcement ourselves.”
One of BOEM’s stipulations for the Oregon sale is that any lessees will describe their “plans for contributing to the creation of a robust and resilient U.S.-based floating offshore wind industry supply chain that would facilitate this or other renewable energy projects permitted by BOEM.”
The sale also offers bidding credits to any bidder that commits to supporting workforce development for the floating offshore wind industry, establishing a lease area community benefit agreement, or establishing a general community benefit agreement.
