U.S. Auction Off Areas for Offshore Wind Farms

The eighth auction in the U.S. ended with the announcement of three winners and a record revenue of $405 million. This was preceded by a process that took much longer than experts had anticipated.

Off the coast of Massachusetts there was an area measuring the equivalent of almost 157,000 hectares available for bidding by interested companies. Ultimately, offshore wind farms with a capacity of 4.1 gigawatts can be built in three seperate territories to supply more than 1.5 million Americans with clean energy. The three winners of the auction, which lasted several rounds, are Equinor Wind (formerly Statoil), Vineyard Wind and Mayflower Wind (a joint venture of EDP Renewables and Shell).

The outgoing U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke then hurried to attribute this success to the current American government: “To anyone who doubted that our ambitious vision for energy dominance would not include renewables, today we put that rumor to rest. With bold leadership, faster, streamlined environmental reviews, and a lot of hard work with our states and fishermen, we’ve given the wind industry the confidence to think and bid big,” Zinke said.

Walter Cruickshank of the BOEM also thanked the state of Massachusetts for removing many regulatory hurdles in recent months and demonstrating a real interest in building an offshore wind industry.

Currently, the BOEM has auctioned off 15 areas where companies must now ensure that offshore wind farms can be built. However, further approvals and expert opinions are required before this can happen.