The Department of the Interior has announced it will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale on 29 October 2024 for eight areas on the Outer Continental Shelf off Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. If fully developed, these areas have a potential capacity of approximately 13 GW of clean offshore wind energy.
The area included in the Final Sale Notice (FSN) is approximately 120,000 acres less than what the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) included in its Proposed Sale Notice, which was announced earlier this year. BOEM prioritised the avoidance of offshore fishing grounds, sensitive habitats, and existing and future vessel transit routes, while still retaining sufficient acreage to support the region’s offshore wind energy goals.
The FSN for the Gulf of Maine auction includes details regarding the auction, provisions, and conditions of the leases, the lease form, information on bidding credits, criteria for evaluating competing bids, award procedures, appeal procedures, and lease execution. The FSN includes several lease stipulations designed to promote the development of a domestic US supply chain for floating wind, create good-paying union jobs, advance flexibility in transmission planning, minimise habitat impacts, and collect data on protected marine mammals.
