November 7, 2024 — Two companies have won leases for four of the eight available wind energy areas that were selected by the Interior Dept.’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in May.
This is the government’s sixth offshore wind lease sale and the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the U.S. Atlantic coast, according to BOEM’s announcement. The leased areas, the agency says, have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes.
The lease sales, made on Oct. 29, do not authorize the construction or operation of wind energy facilities. Instead, they give the two companies the right to submit plans. They also lay out a number of requirements that will shape any proposals.
Two of the leases went to American-owned Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC and two to Avangrid Renewables, LLC, a partial subsidiary of the Spanish energy giant Iberdrola. Each of the four lease areas was purchased for the minimum bid of $50 per acre, totaling $21,954,800 for just under 440,000 acres.