Dive Brief:
- Four lease areas with a combined potential capacity of 6.8 GW were sold in Tuesday’s first-ever offshore wind auction in the Gulf of Maine, according to a release from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
- The provisional buyers are Avangrid Renewables, which purchased two lease areas totaling 223,462 acres for around $11.2 million, and Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, which purchased two lease areas totaling 215,634 acres for around $10.7 million.
- The auction also marks the first time that BOEM has sold a floating offshore wind lease in the Atlantic. The auction netted $71 million less than the most recent fixed-bottom wind lease sale in the Central Atlantic in August, which sold two lease areas containing 6 GW in capacity for close to $93 million in total.
Dive Insight:
“With ample acreage for new projects and a state research lease, BOEM is helping to position Maine as a hub of innovation that will fuel the development of floating offshore wind technology in the U.S. and globally,” Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock said in a release.
Eight leases were auctioned in total, offering up to 13.2 GW in potential capacity, but four went unsold. The auction netted BOEM over $21.9 million, and marked the sixth offshore wind lease sale completed during the Biden administration.
The sale also resulted in over $5.4 million of total bidding credits, BOEM said, representing “binding commitments by companies to invest over $2.7 million in workforce training and domestic supply chain development, and an additional $2.7 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.”
Avangrid’s purchased leases include a 98,565-acre area offering 1.5 GW in potential capacity and a 124,897-acre area offering 1.9 GW, both around 29.5 nautical miles from Massachusetts, BOEM said. Invenergy NE Offshore Wind’s leases include a 97,854-acre area offering 1.6 GW in potential capacity, approximately 46 nautical miles from Maine, and a 117,780-acre area offering 1.8 GW and located around 21.6 nautical miles from Massachusetts.
The purchase of these lease areas will “enable Avangrid to help progress floating wind technology, as the next generation of offshore wind development is increasingly sited in deeper waters,” said a release from the company.
The areas “offer strong wind speeds; relatively shallow waters within the limits of existing floating wind technology; access to multiple interconnection points; and are largely deconflicted from other ocean users following a rigorous federal public engagement process,” Avangrid said.
Tuesday’s auction follows BOEM’s August award of a 144-MW research lease in the Gulf to the state of Maine, in order to “conduct important technological, operational, and scientific research to inform future floating offshore wind projects in the Gulf of Maine,” according to the Maine Offshore Wind Initiative.
“Today’s auction moves Maine one step closer toward securing our spot as a premiere hub for offshore wind in the region,” Andrew Blunt, coastal advocate with Sierra Club Maine, said in a release. “Soon, floating offshore wind turbines far off our coast will make Maine a leader in this sector, and will bring a wave of good-paying clean energy jobs to our communities.”
BOEM also announced on Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Defense “to support the coordinated development of wind energy generation on the Nation’s Outer Continental Shelf.”
“The new MOU will define and clarify the roles and duties of both organizations during leasing and project review,” BOEM said in a release.
The “MOU will help further institutionalize the deep collaboration between BOEM and DOD that is ensuring that offshore wind lease areas and project plans strengthen the nation’s energy security in ways that are compatible with military operations,” the release said.
