US Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Director Abigail Ross Hopper have announced a proposed lease sale for 122,405 acres offshore North Carolina for commercial wind energy leasing.
The proposed lease is for the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area, which BOEM identified in consultation with members of its North Carolina Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force. The area proposed for leasing is the same as the Kitty Hawk Wind Energy Area (WEA) that BOEM announced on August 11, 2014. This WEA begins about 24 nautical miles from shore and extends about 25.7 nautical miles in a general southeast direction. Its seaward extent ranges from 13.5 nautical miles in the north to .6 of a nautical mile in the south. It contains 21.5 Outer Continental Shelf blocks. BOEM has also announced the Wilmington East and Wilmington West WEAs, which, due to their proximity and shared attributes, have been coupled with the planning and leasing process for the South Carolina Call Areas.
