The Department of the Interior has announced the results of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) wind energy auction for two lease areas offshore Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The auction concluded with two provisional winners and a total of $92.65 million in winning bids.
Equinor Wind US provisionally secured Lease OCS-A 0557 with a winning bid of $75,001,001. This lease covers 101,443 acres and is located approximately 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay and has a capacity of approximately 2 GW.
Virginia Electric and Power Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion Energy, also emerged as a provisional winner, obtaining Lease OCS-A 0558 for $17,650,500. This lease spans 176,505 acres and is situated around 35 nautical miles from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. The lease area could support between 2.1 gigawatts and 4.0 gigawatts of offshore wind energy generation.
Six companies participated in the auction. It is important to note that these leases do not grant immediate authorisation for the construction or operation of an offshore wind facility. Instead, they provide the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review.
