U.S. Offshore Wind Lease Sale Draws $4.37 Billion in Winning Bids

The first offshore wind auction held under President Joe Biden’s administration drew a record $4.37 billion in winning bids, according to a Feb. 25 press release from the Department of the Interior. The auction provisionally offered six leases covering an area of about 488,000 acres in the New York Bight, which spans the eastern tip of Long Island to the Cape May inlet in New Jersey. Leases offered in this sale – the most areas offered in a single auction – could result in 5.6 to 7 gigawatts of offshore wind energy.

Bight Wind Holdings won the largest of the six leases, which spans almost 126,000 acres, through a $1.1 billion bid. The smallest lease, which covers roughly 43,000 acres, went to Mid-Atlantic Offshore Wind, a joint venture between Shell and French developer EDF Renewables, at $285 million. The other four winning bids ranged from $645-$795 million. Shell and EDF Renewables also secured an area through their Atlantic Shores partnership, while Chicago-based developer Invenergy secured a lease covering roughly 84,000 acres. Ocean Winds, a 50-50 partnership between Spanish developer EDP Renewables and French utility Engie, won an area with the potential to host 868 megawatts. Attentive Energy won the second-largest lease of just over 84,300 acres.

According to an October 2021 report by The Special Initiative on Offshore Wind, the growing U.S. offshore wind energy industry presents a $109 billion revenue opportunity to businesses in the supply chain over the next decade.

The electricity and associated renewable energy certificates from the expected offshore wind farms will help New York and New Jersey meet their goals for both building out the offshore sector and increasing their use of renewable energy. They will also contribute toward the Biden administration’s goal of building 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. The US Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission will conduct an anti-competitiveness review of the auction before the leases are finalized.