Four offshore wind-power sites in Gulf of Maine auctioned for $22M
Chart / Courtesy, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
Four lease sites were awarded in the 13,713,825-acre Gulf of Maine planning area.
Two energy companies have won leases for 327,096 acres of federal waters off Maine and Massachusetts and hope to install floating wind-power turbines there.
On Tuesday, four of eight available lease areas were sold to provisional winners in an auction by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
The sales resulted in winning bids of over $21.9 million.
Avangrid Renewables LLC won a lease of 98,565 acres for $4,928,250 and a second lease consisting of 124,897 acres for $6,244,850. Both lease areas are approximately 29.5 nautical miles from Massachusetts.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind LLC agreed to pay $4,892,700 for a lease of 97,854 acres that’s 46.2 nautical miles off the coast of Maine and $5,889,000 for a lease of 117,780 acres 21.6 nautical miles from Massachusetts.
Wind-power capacity over the four lease areas is estimated to total 6.8 gigawatts of electricity, enough to supply 2.3 million U.S. homes.
The Maine Renewable Energy Association, an Augusta nonprofit that promotes renewable energy generation, said it applauded the auction’s results as a step toward advancing the state’s clean energy goals.
“This auction is pivotal as Maine continues to lead the way in advancing our renewable energy goals,” said Eliza Donoghue, the association’s executive director, in a news release. “Offshore wind offers not only sustainable, reliable power for our communities but also drives local job creation and economic growth.”
The Biden-Harris administration has a goal to create 30 gigawatts of offshore wind-power capacity by 2030. In addition, the state of Maine is aiming to get 80% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2050. As of this year, more than 50% of Maine’s electricity is being generated from renewable sources.
Workforce training
The leases include commitments to workforce training and building a domestic supply chain, which would include an offshore wind port and supply chain facilities, according to a separate news release.
“These lease areas will deliver well-paying, local jobs and drive significant investment in manufacturing facilities, ports and transmission development,” said Liz Burdock, CEO of Oceantic Network, a nonprofit headquartered in Towson, Md., that assists businesses in developing offshore wind and other ocean renewable industries.
Avangrid and Invenergy are members of Oceantic.
“With ample acreage for new projects and a state research lease, BOEM is helping to position Maine as a hub of innovation that will fuel the development of floating offshore wind technology in the U.S. and globally,” said Burdock.
Waters in the Gulf of Maine are too deep for traditional fixed-bottom wind turbines. The areas will instead require the utilization of floating offshore wind technology.
Lessees also agreed to stipulations designed to promote the floating offshore wind supply chain, transmission planning and well-paying union jobs.
Jack Shapiro, the climate and clean energy director with the Augusta-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Council of Maine, called the lease sale “a momentous step forward for Maine’s goals to tackle climate change and build a new clean energy industry.”
Floating platforms
The auction announcement follows the federal issuance of an offshore wind research lease to the state of Maine in August. That lease allows the state to construct a 144-megawatt pilot project and conduct studies that will inform future floating offshore wind development in the region and beyond.
The array would include up to 12 floating offshore wind turbines, sited on a little under 15,000 acres of federal waters 28 miles southeast of Portland. The goal is to allow the state, the fishing and wind industries, marine life experts and others to evaluate the technology and the energy it produces as a renewable resource.
Researchers and students at the University of Maine are developing the floating wind turbine technology that needs to be used in the deep ocean waters of the Gulf of Maine.
The technology involves wind turbines that sit on floating platforms, with the assemblage held in position by mooring lines anchored to the seabed.
The lessees
Avangrid Renewables is part of Avangrid Inc. (NYSE: AGR), which is headquartered in Orange, Conn., and a subsidiary of Spanish electric utility conglomerate Iberdrola S.A. Avangrid is also the parent of Central Maine Power Co.
The lease areas awarded to Avangrid are in the southwest region of the Gulf of Maine development area. Attributes there include strong wind speeds, relatively shallow waters that are within the limits of floating wind-turbine technology, and little interference with other ocean users, according to a separate news release.
Not including the lease area secured this week, Avangrid already has a projected offshore wind-power pipeline of over 5 gigwatts along the East Coast — enough to supply more than 2 million households.
Invenergy, headquartered in Chicago, is developing a multi-project portfolio of offshore wind power. In 2022, BOEM awarded Invenergy two offshore wind leases off the New Jersey and California coasts, comprising 160,000 acres, with the potential to generate over four gigawatts, enough to power 1.5 million homes.
10 projects
The auction on Tuesday was the federal government’s sixth offshore wind lease sale, and the first commercial sale for floating offshore wind on the Atlantic Coast.
Altogether, the 10 offshore wind projects could be capable of powering over 5 million homes.
“To ensure we got the process of bringing offshore wind to the Gulf of Maine right, we’ve engaged in over a hundred outreach efforts with local communities and connected with thousands of partners and stakeholders,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.
This week’s sale resulted in commitments by companies to invest over $2.7 million in workforce training and domestic supply chain development, and an additional $2.7 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.
Lease stipulations require that the lessees make “every reasonable effort” to enter into a project labor agreement covering the construction stage of any project for the lease areas; develop communication plans for engagement with tribes, agencies and fisheries; and provide semiannual reports on engagement activities.
Next steps
The leases do not authorize the construction or operation of any offshore wind facilities. Rather, they provide the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review. BOEM said it will develop an environmental impact statement to analyze the specific impacts of any project proposals before making decisions on whether to approve a proposed construction and operations plan.
The bureau's next lease sale of potential offshore wind sites in the Gulf of Maine is scheduled for 2028.
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Maine is part of the New England ISO. Renewable generation serving New England accounts for 10% +/- on any given day. It is incorrec to state that "more than 50% of Maine's electricity is being generated by renewable resources." Please go to iso-ne.com.
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