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September 17, 2024

Feds set date to auction Gulf of Maine waters for commercial wind power use

Map Detail / Provided, BOEM A nautical chart from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management shows, in green, the eight parcels whose leases will go up for auction next month. Two of them are off the coast of Maine.
By William Hall

The federal government is ready to auction off leases for eight swaths of New England ocean as sites for commercial wind farms.

The leases for areas of the Gulf of Maine — including two off the coast of York County — will go up for sale on Oct. 29, the Department of the Interior said Monday.

The other lease areas are near Cape Cod in Massachusetts.

Altogether, the parcels add up to about 850,000 federally controlled acres of the North Atlantic Ocean. That's 120,000 acres smaller than what the department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had previously proposed selling.

The bureau, which manages resource development along the U.S. continental shelf, downsized the lease areas in order to avoid offshore fishing grounds, sensitive habitats and vessel transit routes, the Interior Department said in a news release.

The waters now to be leased are also far less than the 3.5 million acres considered last year as the preliminary Draft Wind Energy Area for the Gulf of Maine.

If fully developed with offshore wind turbines, the scaled-down set of eight areas could generate roughly 13 gigawatts of energy, enough to power more than 4.5 million homes. President Joe Biden has set a goal for the U.S. to produce 30 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind by 2030.

“The upcoming Gulf of Maine offshore wind energy auction reflects our all-of-government approach for reaching the Biden-Harris administration’s energy goals while combatting the climate crisis,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.

“Together, we can do our part to facilitate a new American industry while fostering job growth and promoting equitable economic opportunities for all communities.”

The Natural Resources Council of Maine also expressed enthusiam.

“This final sale notice is a massive milestone for realizing the enormous potential to deliver vast amounts of affordable, reliable, home-grown clean energy to Maine and the rest of New England," said Jack Shapiro, NRCM's climate and clean energy director, in a statement.

"This is our opportunity to create a new clean energy industry for Maine that builds on our proud maritime and shipbuilding legacy with thousands of new jobs, lower pollution and stronger communities.”

Also in the wind

The areas to be auctioned next month are separate from where a planned array of 12 floating wind turbines would be used for research.

That project intends to test and refine turbine technology developed by the University of Maine and its partner, Diamond Offshore Wind, with state and federal support.

To provide a site for the research array, the office of Gov. Janet Mills in August signed a lease from the BOEM for a little under 15,000 acres of federal waters, 28 miles southeast of Portland.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland commented on both the research project and the commercial lease auction in the news release Monday.

“The growing enthusiasm for the clean energy future is infectious. Today’s announcement — which builds on the execution of the nation’s first floating offshore wind energy research lease in Maine last month — is the result of years of thoughtful coordination between our team, the Gulf of Maine states, industry and the Tribes and ocean users who share our interest in the health and longevity of our ocean,” she said.

The issuance of a lease resulting from the Oct. 29 sale does not authorize the construction and operations of an offshore wind facility, the Interior Department noted.

A lease provides the right to submit project-specific plans, which still must undergo environmental, technical and public reviews.

Since the start of the Biden administration, the department has held five auctions of lease parcels for offshore wind development along the central Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. The department has also approved 10 commercial-scale offshore wind projects.

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