The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) yesterday raised nearly $93m in an auction for two lease areas for wind power sites off the coasts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
Outbidding a combined field of six companies were Equinor Wind US and Virginia Electric and Power Co, a subsidiary of Dominion Energy.
They’re considered “provisional” winners because they must now submit construction and development proposals to BOEM for their respective wind farm plans.
Between them, the two companies secured 277,948 acres for a combined $92.65m.
Equinor Wind successfully bid $75m for a lease of 101,443 acres some 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay (pictured). Equinor called it “a long-term option with first power post 2035”.
Virginia Electric and Power successfully bid $17.65m for a lease of 176,505 acres some 35 nautical miles from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay.
Ups and downs
Politico characterised the auction as a “much-needed win” for the Biden administration, which wants 30 gigawatts of fixed offshore wind capacity installed by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore capacity by 2035.
So far, the US has approved 13 gigawatts-worth of offshore wind projects.
Expectations had been raised in February 2022 by a record-breaking haul of $4.4bn in an auction for six lease areas totalling over 488,000 acres in the New York Bight.
That was followed in December that year by an auction for five lease areas totalling 373,268 acres off California, which netted $757.1m.
But poor results in auctions in the Gulf of Mexico have cast doubts on the viability of the Biden administration’s goal.
Politico noted that last month BOEM canceled an auction there owing to lack of interest, and an auction in 2023 drew under $6m for a portion of the leases on offer.
Worries have included rising costs of building wind farms owing to global inflation, and the hostility to offshore wind of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Concerns have also been raised by the sudden snapping off of a turbine blade at the under-construction Vineyard Wind 1 development off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts on 13 July, which saw construction suspended for a month.
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