The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) reports that it has concluded its sixth offshore wind lease sale by offering areas in the Gulf of Maine – the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic Coast.
The lease sale resulted in two provisional winners on four lease areas and over $21.9 million in winning bids.
Avangrid Renewables, LLC won Lease OCS-564 at $4,928,250, which consists of 98,565 acres and Lease OCS-568 at $6,244,850, which consists of 124,897 acres. Both lease areas are approximately 29.5 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC won Lease OCS-562 at $4,892,700, which consists of 97,854 acres and is approximately 46.2 nm from Maine and Lease OCS-567 at $5,889,000 which consists of 117,780 acres is approximately 21.6 nautical miles (nm) from Massachusetts.
BOEM says that the four lease areas auctioned in the Gulf of Maine have a combined potential capacity of 6.8 GW. But online reports indicate that the auction netted $71 million less than the most recent fixed-bottom wind lease sale in the Central Atlantic in August, which sold two lease areas containing 6 GW in capacity for close to $93 million in total.
