Environmentalists have encouraged the development of offshore wind as a way to transition the region toward cleaner energy. (Getty Images)
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded two companies the right to submit project plans for four wind lease areas in the Gulf of Maine following a Tuesday auction where the winning bids totaled about $22 million.
The four lease areas were from a total of eight that had been put up for auction. The leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes, BOEM said in its announcement. No bids were placed on the other four lease areas, said Alison Ferris, a national communications lead with BOEM, in an email. Another Gulf of Maine sale is scheduled for 2028.
“The timing and scope of a second Gulf of Maine sale, however, will be directly informed by an analysis of today’s sale results,” Ferris said, “as well as ongoing engagements with potentially affected Tribes, Gulf of Maine states, and stakeholders; and by relevant market conditions and regional energy goals.”
Both companies won the maximum amount of lease areas allowed under the rules of the auction: two in what BOEM designated as the southern region or one in the south and one in the north. Winning these bids does not mean companies have been greenlit to construct offshore wind facilities. They’ll have to submit plans, and BOEM will have to engage with a variety of stakeholders to develop environmental impact statements.
Avangrid Renewables, LLC – which, according to its website, is headquartered in Orange, Connecticut – is the provisional winner of two lease areas about 29.5 nautical miles from Massachusetts. The company bid roughly $11.2 million for more than 223,000 acres. The lease areas – designated OCS-564 and OCS-564 – are diagonal to each other in the ocean.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind, LLC – which has its corporate headquarters in Chicago – submitted winning bids that totaled around $10.8 million for two lease areas. Its more northern lease area, OCS-562, is nearly 98,000 acres and about 46.2 nautical miles from Maine; its other lease area, OCS-567, is roughly 118,000 acres and 21.6 nautical miles from Maine.
Environmentalists have encouraged the development of offshore wind as a way to transition the region toward cleaner energy. In a press release, the Conservation Law Foundation hailed the lease sale as an important step forward while also saying the group would continue to push business and government actors to minimize impacts on North Atlantic right whales and avoid vital habitats.
“The Gulf of Maine lease sale is a pivotal step in our clean energy transition and for the region to significantly reduce climate-damaging emissions,” said Kate Sinding Daly, CLF’s senior vice president for law and policy, in a statement.
Fishermen, including in New Hampshire, have raised anxieties about the impact of the projects on their livelihood and the ocean. In its final sale notice, BOEM laid out how it shaped the lease areas in response to feedback from various stakeholders, including to avoid sensitive habitats, offshore fishing activities, and areas with “relatively higher densities of North Atlantic right whale sightings and detections.”
Offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine has been divisive in the governor’s race, with Democrat Joyce Craig in favor and Republican Kelly Ayotte opposed, though she is open to wind more generally. Former President Donald Trump has vowed to halt offshore wind development if elected, while the Biden-Harris administration has set a goal to reach 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030.
This map shows the eight lease areas put up to auction in late October. (Screenshot from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management)