The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) wind energy auction for two lease areas offshore Delaware, Maryland and Virginia have resulted in two provisional winners and $92.65 million in winning bids.
“At the start of the administration, our nation had approved zero offshore wind energy projects. Today, we have nine: enough to power nearly 5 million homes. This is what developing a clean energy transition looks like,” says Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.
“Together, we are demonstrating that, in partnership with states, Tribes, ocean users and industry, we can build an entirely new and sustainable industry that will meet the growing demands of our nation far into the future, while creating good-paying jobs and helping mitigate the threat of the climate crisis.”
Equinor Wind provisionally won Lease OCS-A 0557 at $75 million, which consists of 101,443 acres and is approximately 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay. Virginia Electric and Power, a subsidiary of Dominion, provisionally won Lease OCS-A 0558 at $17.6 million which consists of 176,505 acres and is approximately 35 nautical miles from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. It lies adjacent to Dominion’s 2.6 GW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.
Six companies participated in the auction.
Today’s sale resulted in $23 million total bidding credits. These bidding credits are set to result in $11 million for workforce training and domestic supply chain, and an additional $11 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.
Lease stipulations require that the lessees make every reasonable effort to enter into a project labor agreement covering the construction stage of any project for the lease areas; develop communication plans for Tribes, agencies, and fisheries; and provide semi-annual reports on engagement activities with Tribes and communities.
The leases awarded today do not authorize the construction or operation of an offshore wind facility. Instead, it provides the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review. BOEM will develop an EIS to analyze the specific impacts of any project proposals before making decisions on whether to approve a proposed construction and operations plan.
BOEM will also continue to convene the Central Atlantic Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force to enhance collaboration and to explore and identify potential additional areas for future offshore wind leasing.
These ongoing intergovernmental efforts include a June MOU that outlines joint work by the Biden-Harris administration and the State of Maryland to evaluate additional areas off Maryland’s shores that could become wind energy areas and support the development of offshore wind projects.
The department has also taken steps to grow a sustainable offshore wind industry by encouraging the use of project labor agreements, strengthening workforce training, bolstering a domestic supply chain and continued engagement with Tribes, fisheries, communities and ocean users.
Earlier this year, Secretary Haaland announced a schedule of additional lease sales through 2028. Thus far, the department has approved 13 GW of energy from offshore wind projects.
