The process is beginning in the efforts to define the next round of offshore wind power areas to be located along the Central Atlantic coast. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it will open a 60-day comment period while soliciting input to lead to the next round of sites planned for a future lease auction. This comes just a week after the first auction was completed for the region.
The Call which will be published tomorrow, August 22, seeks to define areas with nearly 13.5 million acres that range between New Jersey to Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the North Carolina coast. BOEM will be accepting information through October 21 and then will begin an analysis as well as working with the Central Atlantic Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force.
“Today’s announcement kicks off the process for a second potential auction in the Central Atlantic and provides an important avenue to solicit information as we identify potential areas that may be suitable for future offshore wind energy leasing,” said?BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.
The process also calls for working with other ocean users, including commercial fisheries, the military, and vessel traffic, to design the areas to minimize conflicts and provide the best opportunities. BOEM will also conduct environmental reviews of the wind areas in consultation with the appropriate federal agencies, state and local governments, and other stakeholders before designating the next areas.
Map of the Central Atlantic wind areas as BOEM calls for comments to define second lease round (BOEM)
The auction completed on August 14 was the first in the region and the fifth conducted by the Biden administration. Two provisional winners, Equinor and Dominion Energy, were announced with the winning bids for the two sites totaling $92.65 million.
One property, consisting of 101,443 acres approximately 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay generated strong interest. Bidding started at $10 million and closed after seven rounds with Equinor designated as the winner bidding just over $75 million. Five groups, including energyRe Wind US, US Wind, RWE Offshore, and Invenergy Central Atlantic Offshore as well as Equinor were bidding with it coming down to a head-to-head round between RWE and Equinor.
The second site, which consists of 176,505 acres and is approximately 35 nautical miles from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, only drew bids from Dominion Energy. The lease is adjacent to Dominion’s current lease area and a site it is acquiring in a private transaction with Avangrid. They bid as much as $26.5 million but won it with the opening bid of just over $17.65 million.
BOEM has now approved more than 13 gigawatts of clean energy from offshore wind projects. In addition to two projects started in 2023, work is now underway in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, as well as Dominion Energy which is underway on installations for the first offshore wind farm in the Central Atlantic region.
No timing was announced for the second phase of the Central Atlantic but it will be several years in review and design. BOEM earlier this year mapped out plans for lease auctions through 2028. The strategy envisions up to 12 offshore wind lease sales across the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Pacific, and the waters offshore the U.S. territories.
