Federal government offshore wind auction shatters records

Today was the final day of the auction for three tracts of ocean off located 19.8 nautical miles from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., 16.7 nautical miles from Nantucket, Mass., and 44.5 nautical miles from Block Island, Rhode Island.

When fully developed, the three tracts could generate 4.1 GW of offshore wind, which would be enough electricity to power nearly 1.5 million homes, according to BOEM’s estimates. An announcement of the winners is expected at the end of the day.

A total of 19 companies qualified to take part in the competitive process, including Avangrid Renewables LLC, Deepwater Wind, Deepwater Wind New England, PNE Wind, Vineyard Wind, and Equinor Wind US. Bidding went up to 32 rounds today before the auction concluded.

This offshore wind sale is still going strong! At a whopping $196 million!

What will producers who don’t win lease blocks do with their capital? They need a pipeline of regular and predictable lease sales from BOEM_DOI & NOIA (@oceanindustries) December 13, 2018

BOEM has so far awarded 13 commercial offshore wind leases, while the U.S. presently has just one operating offshore wind farm — the 30-MW Block Island park off Rhode Island that entered into service in December 2016.

The largest offshore wind farm on the planet, Walney Extension, is situated in the Irish Sea.

Orsted

General Electric subsidiary, GE Power and Deepwater Wind, a developer of offshore turbines, partnered together to build five massive wind turbines 3.8 miles off the coast of Block Island to provide power to the 17,000 homes on the island. The project cost $300 million. The wind farm is also expected to reduce electricity costs on the island by 40 percent while creating 300 jobs.

This year’s offshore wind auction is already being hailed as a great success. “Wow! We are shattering records today! This should send a strong message to BOEM & Interior that offshore wind producers need reliable and regularly scheduled offshore wind sales,” the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) tweeted Thursday even before the final round had been reached.

Actually, it’s about time for the current administration to sit up and take notice of what the rest of the world already knows: Offshore wind is taking off by leaps and bounds. The U.S., normally a leader in technology, has a lot of catching up to do.