Interior faces low-interest offshore wind lease sale

By Shelby Webb | 10/29/2024 01:22 PM EDT

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auctioned off less than half of 1 million acres offered off the coast of New England.

An illustration of floating offshore wind turbines.

An illustration of floating offshore wind turbines is shown. Josh Bauer/National Renewable Energy Laboratory

A Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offshore wind lease sale auctioned off four of eight available leases in the Gulf of Maine on Tuesday, raising questions about interest in the industry.

Invenergy NE Offshore Wind and Avangrid Renewables bid on a combined 439,096 acres off the coast of New England on Tuesday, short of the nearly 1 million acres BOEM had put up for auction. It was the first commercial lease sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic Coast. The winning bids totaled $21.9 million.

The sale was also the first in the Gulf of Maine and the farthest north BOEM has auctioned acreage for offshore wind. It was the sixth and final offshore wind auction for the Biden administration before the president leaves office in January.

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Combined, the lease areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes — about half the power potential Interior hoped the lease projects could generate.

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