BOEM Sets Massachusetts Offshore Wind Lease Auction Date

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold the next offshore wind auction offering nearly 390,000 acres offshore Massachusetts on 13 December.

If fully developed, the areas being offered could support approximately 4.1GW of commercial wind generation, according to BOEM.

Nineteen companies have qualified to participate in the auction for the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area, the US Department of Interior said.

The companies eligible to participate in the Atlantic Wind Lease Sale 4A are Avangrid Renewables, Camellia Wind Energy, CI III Blue Cloud Wind Energy II, Cobra Industrial Services, Deepwater Wind New England, East Wind, EC&R Development, EDF Renewables Development, EDPR Offshore North America, Enbridge Holdings (Green Energy), Innogy US Renewable Projects, Mayflower Wind Energy, Northeast Wind Energy, Northland Power America, PNE Wind USA, Equinor Wind US, Vineyard Wind, Wind Future, and wpd offshore Alpha.

The three leases offered in the auction are located within the two lease blocks for which Equinor (formerly Statoil) and PNE Wind separately submitted unsolicited lease requests in late 2016 and early 2017.

“The Massachusetts sale has a lot of potential for both energy and economic activity,”  US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said.

“If fully developed, the wind auction could support approximately 4.1 gigawatts of power to supply nearly 1.5 million homes. This is just one example of the importance of fostering wind energy as a new American industry.”

Further details about the auction will be published in a Final Sale Notice appearing in the Federal Register on 19 October.