The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on Tuesday will hold the first competitive auction for roughly 850,000 acres in the Gulf of Maine designated by the Biden-Harris administration for offshore wind energy development.
The eight areas up for lease sale lie on the Outer Continental Shelf off of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, and if fully developed have the potential to provide approximately 13 gigawatts of offshore wind energy — enough to power 4.5 million homes, according to BOEM.
Under President Joe Biden, the federal government has approved 10 commercial offshore wind projects, and has set a goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
The 850,000 acres included in the Biden-Harris administration’s Final Sale Notice (FSN) represents approximately 120,000 acres less than what was initially proposed by BOEM in April, and excludes Lobster Area Management 1 (LMA 1) — federal waters in the Gulf of Maine critical to the state’s fishing industry.
The auction, slated to be held online beginning at 9 a.m. this Tuesday, comes two months after BOEM approved a separate offshore wind energy research lease which allows for the deployment of up to 12 turbines in the Gulf of Maine about 30 miles southeast of Portland.
Any lease issued during Tuesday’s auction does not immediately authorize construction and operation of an offshore wind facility, but provides the right to submit project-specific plans that would then be subject to environmental, technical and public review prior to final approval.
0 Comments