First lease auction for Gulf of Mexico wind development set for late August
July 23, 2023
Aug. 29 auction will involve over 300,000 acres off Louisiana and Texas.
Offshore staff
WASHINGTON, DC – The first auction of offshore leases for wind power development in the Gulf of Mexico will take place Aug. 29 for tracts off the Louisiana and Texas coasts, the Biden administration has announced.
The Department of the Interior said the lease sale will involve more than 300,000 acres. That includes a 102,480-acre area off the southwest Louisiana coast, and areas covering 102,480 acres and 96,786 acres off Galveston, Texas.
Courtesy BOEM
The Gulf areas being auctioned next month are said to have the potential to generate 3.7 gigawatts, enough power for nearly 1.3 million homes, the Interior news release said. The administration has set a goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
Plans for the sale come as wind energy projects are already taking shape in the Northeast. Earlier this month, the government gave the go-ahead for New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm to begin construction. That followed approval of projects now under construction in the northeast, one off Massachusetts and the other off New York and Rhode Island.
