California offshore wind lease auction kicks off today

December 6 (Renewables Now) - The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is today launching an offshore wind lease auction for five areas off California’s coast that could deliver over 4.5 GW of offshore wind energy.

A total of 43 parties have been qualified to participate in the auction, among them Avangrid Renewables LLC, Corio OSW Investments LLC, EDF Renewables Development Inc, EDPR Offshore North America LLC, Equinor Wind US LLC, RWE Renewables Development LLC, Shell New Energies US LLC and TotalEnergies Renewables USA LLC, according to the final sale notice.

The lease sale is the first on America’s west coast and the first to support floating offshore wind development. It includes three deep-water areas off central California and two off northern California.

The auction is starting at 0700 AM PST/1000 AM EST.

In May, BOEM held an offshore wind sale for two areas in the Carolina Long Bay. In February, it conducted an auction for acreage in the New York Bight, which lasted three days and drew competitive winning bids totalling USD 4.37 billion (EUR 4.12bn).

The Biden administration has set a target of 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and a goal of 15 GW for floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.945)