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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) of the US Department of the Interior (DOI) unveiled the provisional winners of an offshore wind energy lease sale on 7 Dec 2022. The auction involved five lease areas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) in California, US, and attracted bids from five firms totalling $757.1 M. The lease areas cover a total of 373,268 acres of space and have the potential to generate more than 4.6 gigawatts (GW) of wind power. When developed, the capacity is sufficient to energize around 1.5 M homes. The auction supports the US government's aim to deploy 15 GW of floating offshore wind power by 2035 and 30 GW of offshore wind power by 2030. It is also a vital move for California, which targets to have 2-5 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030. The state aims to have 25 GW by 2045. Final determination regarding the granting of leases must be approved by BOEM, pending the US Department of Justice's antitrust review and the winner giving financial assurance. Considering these, lease execution is not expected until early 2023. Three of the five lease areas are located within the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA), while the other two are situated in the Humboldt WEA. Findings of No Significant Impact and Final Environmental Assessments have been issued by BOEM for these areas. The auction provided a 20% credit for the winners who pledged initiatives or programmes that support workforce training or domestic supply chain development. This credit could lead to investments of $117 M. A table shows the provisional winners and their lease areas: RWE Offshore Wind Holdings LLC (bid: $157.7 M for 63,338 acres), California North Floating LLC (bid: $173.8 M for 69,031 acres), Equinor Wind US LLC (bid: $130 M for 80,062 acres), Central California Offshore Wind LLC (bid: $150.3 M for 80,418 acres), and Invenergy California Offshore LLC (bid: $145.3 M for 80,418 acres). Original Source: Renewable Energy News, http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/.