On Tuesday, the U.S Department of the Interior picked two energy companies to build new offshore wind turbines near Maine off the New England coast. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (pictured in May) highlighted how the Biden administration has been “committed to achieving our ambitious clean energy goals.” File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
The U.S Department of the Interior picked two energy companies to build new offshore wind turbines near Maine off the New England coast, according to new reports.
Tuesday’s successful auction marked “another critical step in our fight against climate change,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a release. Advertisement
The nearly $22M combined transaction between the two represents half of the available area in what is now the country’s largest sale of an offshore wind lease.
Avangrid Renewables LLC of Portland, Ore., which is a subsidiary of the giant Spanish energy company Iberdrola, had bid $4.9M for 98,565 acres and $6.2 million for nearly 125,000 acres.
The auction, conducted by the federal government’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, resulted in the two “provisional winners” on four lease territories totaling about $21.9M in investments by the winning bidders.
The two areas leased are roughly 30 nautical miles from Massachusetts in the Gulf of Maine. Advertisement
The department added that this is the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the eastern seaboard.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind LLC — which already has two leases off the California and New Jersey coasts — put in a $4.8M bid for roughly 46 nautical miles from Maine and $5.8M for 117,780 acres nearly 22 nautical miles from Massachusetts.
This is the federal government’s sixth offshore wind lease sale, DOI says. The projects are a facet of President Joe Biden’s goal to develop 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
“I am thrilled to see the next step toward bringing homegrown offshore wind to Maine that will create good, union jobs, get us off of volatile and expensive fossil fuels, and help to protect families from further climate disasters,” Lucy Hochschartner, climate and clean energy director at Maine Conservation Voters, told Portland Press Herald in Maine via email.
As recently as September, the long-planned Maryland Offshore Wind Project landed its final federal approval which aims to deliver more than 2 gigawatts of clean energy to two states,
On Tuesday, Haaland stated that the Biden administration has been “committed to achieving our ambitious clean energy goals.” She also highlighted how the U.S. government’s 10 currently approved offshore wind projects will be capable of powering more than 5M U.S. homes. Advertisement
The 10 approved wind projects is up from zero at the start of the Biden administration. Its first such lease for offshore wind in the Gulf of Mexico was announced in February of last year. And in 2021 the administration signed off on the construction of a large-scale wind farm project off the Rhode Island coast that will supply electric to 70,000 New York homes.
“We are well on our way to a clean energy future,” Haaland says. She called for ensuring the “momentum” of the offshore wind industry “for generations to come.”
However, the Interior Department pointed out that Tuesday’s act does not authorize construction or operation of any offshore wind facilities. But rather, it provides the right to submit a project plan for federal review.
But according to BOEM, the newly-leased areas would represent the potential to power more than 2.3 million American homes.
Stipulations of the lease, among other things, require the energy companies to “make every reasonable effort” to enter into labor union agreements for the construction phase, and to develop communication “plans for engagement” with American native tribes, agencies and fisheries.
A Bureau of Ocean Energy Management official said the federal government has so far engaged in “over a hundred” outreach efforts with local communities and connected “with thousands of partners and stakeholders” throughout the process. Advertisement
The lease deals also compel the companies to provide semi-annual reports on the engagement activities with local tribes and communities.
“Collaboration with partners and stakeholders is key to making progress,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said.
By working closely with states, native tribes, ocean users and industry leaders, according to Klein, “we are building a sustainable new industry that will meet our nation’s current and future energy needs,” she added.
