US proposes 18GW floating offshore wind lease sales for Gulf of Maine and Oregon
US proposes 18GW floating offshore wind lease sales for Gulf of Maine and Oregon | Windpower Monthly
The US Department of the Interior has proposed holding offshore wind auctions off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine.
The leases could support more than 18GW of offshore wind capacity – about 15GW in the Gulf of Maine, and about 3GW off Oregon – according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). It has not confirmed a schedule for the lease sales.
Oregon – in the north-west – and Maine – in the north-east on the Canadian border – have deep waters. Any wind farms there would have to use floating platforms.
“BOEM's combined announcement solidifies two new regional markets for floating offshore wind, balancing the development of this industry sector across both coasts,” said Liz Burdock, CEO of the Oceantic Network trade group.
“New lease areas in Oregon will support a further buildout of the west coast’s regional supply chain, adding strength to California projects,” she said. “And in the Gulf of Maine, this new 15GW potential will drive the creation of a floating offshore wind supply chain on the east coast.”
The proposed sales are the first in President Joe Biden’s just-announced five-year offshore wind plan.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.