Eight areas within the Gulf of Maine, including two just over 100 kilometers from Seacoast New Hampshire shores, are set to be auctioned off by the federal government for the purpose of developing floating offshore wind energy installations.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) within the U.S. Department of the Interior will hold an auction on Oct. 29 for the areas in the gulf’s outer continental shelf off Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, the agency announced Monday.
Two of the lease areas located 100-plus kilometers east of Portsmouth – labeled as OCS-A-0562 and OCS-A-0563 by BOEM – represent a combined 203,536 acres of developable space within the Atlantic Ocean. Offshore wind farms there could generate 3.3 gigawatts of clean energy and power for more than 1.1 million homes, according to estimates from BOEM.
If all eight areas in the ocean are developed, they have the capability of producing roughly 13 gigawatts of clean offshore wind energy and power over 4.5 million residences, according to BOEM.
Sen. Watters: ‘Extraordinary step forward for New Hampshire’
State Sen. David Watters, a Democrat from Dover who is a leading advocate for offshore wind development in the Granite State, reported the fully developed 13 gigawatts would be about six times the production at Seabrook Station nuclear power plant.
“This is an extraordinary step forward for New Hampshire,” he said Monday. “It’s a very, very substantial supply of renewable, reliable and what I think will be a very good-priced energy.”
Watters reported “four or five” companies have expressed interest in bidding during the Gulf of Maine auction. He said any bidder would have to undergo three years’ worth of environmental construction review, a period that would feature ample time for public comment.
“This is on schedule for what they’d said they would do to have this auction done by the end of October,” Watters said of BOEM. “They have consulted very, very carefully with New Hampshire fishermen, with the Coast Guard, Homeland Security, (New Hampshire) Fish and Game and other concerns to make sure that areas of interest have been heard. They’ve been very, very responsive to us. I think this is a good process.”
The final sale notice for the Gulf of Maine offshore wind auction contains about 120,000 acres less than BOEM included in its proposed sale notice released earlier this year. The final sale notice for the leasable space includes a total of 827,886 developable acres within the Gulf of Maine.
“The issuance of any lease resulting from this sale does not authorize the construction and operations of an offshore wind facility,” according to BOEM’s announcement Monday. “A lease provides the right to submit project-specific plans. Such plans, if submitted, would be subject to environmental, technical, and public reviews prior to a decision on whether the project proposals should be approved.”
The final sale notice for the Gulf of Maine offshore wind project was set to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday.
Offshore wind leaders react to Gulf of Maine auction
The Oceantic Network, known previously as the Business Network for Offshore Wind, reacted to the announcement of the auction on Monday afternoon.
“This represents a monumental step forward for floating offshore wind technology not only in the U.S., but globally,” said Oceantic Chief Executive Officer Liz Burdock in a prepared statement.
In August, the U.S. Department of the Interior approved a floating offshore wind energy research lease for the state of Maine, a first-of-its-kind initiative in America. The research lease area, located nearly 52 kilometers off Maine, could accommodate 12 floating offshore wind turbines producing upwards of 144 megawatts of renewable energy, according to U.S. Department of the Interior.
Offshore wind leaders from the federal government chimed in Monday on the coming offshore wind auction for the Gulf of Maine.
“The growing enthusiasm for the clean energy future is infectious. Today’s announcement – which builds on the execution of the nation’s first floating offshore wind energy research lease in Maine last month – is the result of years of thoughtful coordination between our team, the Gulf of Maine states, industry and the Tribes and ocean users who share our interest in the health and longevity of our ocean,” said U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a prepared statement.
“The upcoming Gulf of Maine offshore wind energy auction reflects our all-of-government approach for reaching the Biden-Harris administration’s energy goals while combating the climate crisis,” said Elizabeth Klein, the director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
White House: Biden-Harris administration hopes for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030
Earlier this month, the federal government approved the nation’s 10th offshore wind project off Maryland. The project will lead to upwards of 2,200 megawatts of renewable energy for the Delmarva Peninsula and power as many as 770,000 homes, according to the White House.
Annually, an estimated 2,679 jobs would be supported during the development and construction phases of the Maryland offshore wind project, the White House reports.
The Biden-Harris administration has a goal of creating 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy around the United States by 2030. With the green light for the Maryland project, the administration is halfway to its goal with over 15 gigawatts of offshore wind energy approved for development.
“Overall, successfully deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind will help power 10 million homes with clean energy, support 77,000 jobs, avoid 78 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, and spur $12 billion per year in private investment in offshore wind projects,” the White House said in a Sept. 5 announcement of the approval for the project off Maryland.
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Publish date : 2024-09-16 22:10:00
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