Offshore Wind Auction Sets Record/RNN

More good news as we head into Christmas (Merry Christmas and thank you for being part of the RNN family):  Wind energy continues to blow strong economic gains.  That should continue as the technology improves and siting speeds up.



On Friday, December 14, three companies claimed winning bids for Massachusetts offshore wind. Areas could support approximately 4.1 gigawatts of commercial wind generation, enough to power nearly 1.5 million homes.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Acting Director Walter Cruickshank on Friday announced the completion of the nation’s eighth and highest grossing competitive lease sale for renewable energy in federal waters. Last Friday’s lease sale offered approximately 390,000 acres offshore Massachusetts for potential wind energy development and drew competitive winning bids from three companies totaling approximately $405 million in winning bids. If fully developed, the areas could support approximately 4.1 gigawatts of commercial wind generation, enough electricity to power nearly 1.5 million homes.

“To anyone who doubted that our ambitious vision for energy dominance would not include renewables, today we put that rumor to rest,” said Secretary Zinke. “With bold leadership, faster, streamlined environmental reviews, and a lot of hard work with our states and fishermen, we’ve given the wind industry the confidence to think and bid big.”
The provisional winners of today’s lease sale are:

Provisional Winner Lease Area Acres Winning Bid
Equinor Wind US, LLC OCS-A 0520 128,811 $135,000,000.00
Mayflower Wind Energy, LLC OCS-A 0521 127,388 $135,000,000.00
Vineyard Wind, LLC OCS-A 0522 132,370 $135,100,000.00
The following companies participated in today’s lease sale:
Cobra Industrial Services, Inc.
East Wind, LLC
EC&R Development, LLC
EDF Renewables Development, Inc.
Equinor Wind US, LLC
Innogy US Renewable Projects, LLC
Mayflower Wind Energy, LLC
Northeast Wind Energy, LLC
PNE WIND USA, Inc.
Vineyard Wind, LLC
wpd offshore Alpha, LLC

The three lease areas auctioned today are located 19.8 nautical miles from Martha’s Vineyard, 16.7 nautical miles from Nantucket, and 44.5 nautical miles from Block Island. A map of the lease areas can be found here.

“This auction will further the Administration’s comprehensive effort to secure the nation’s energy future,” said BOEM Acting Director Cruickshank. “The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and members of the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Task Force have been great partners throughout this process. We look forward to working with them and the lessees as we move forward with next steps for developing offshore wind energy in a responsible manner.”

Before the lease is executed, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission will conduct an anti-competitiveness review of the auction, and the provisional winner will be required to pay the winning bid and provide financial assurance to BOEM.

The lease will have a preliminary term of one year, during which the lessee may submit a Site Assessment Plan (SAP) to BOEM for approval. The SAP will describe the facilities (e.g., meteorological towers or buoys) a lessee plans to install or deploy for the assessment of the wind resources and ocean conditions of its commercial lease area.
Following approval of a SAP, the lessee will then have four and a half years to submit a Construction and Operations Plan (COP) to BOEM for approval. This plan will provide a detailed proposal for the construction and operation of a wind energy project within the lease area.

Once BOEM receives a COP, it will conduct an environmental review of the proposed project and reasonable alternatives. Public input will be an important part of BOEM’s review process. If BOEM approves the COP, the lessee will then have a term of 33 years to construct and operate the project.

Before today’s lease sale, the highest grossing offshore wind lease sale was held in December 2016 for the lease area offshore New York that received a winning bid of over $42 million.

After Friday’s auction, BOEM has 15 active wind leases. These lease sales have generated more than $473 million in winning bids for nearly two million acres in federal waters. Money received from offshore wind lease sales go to the United States Treasury.