The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has unveiled the winners of its Central Atlantic offshore wind energy auction, which proposed two lease areas off the US states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia. The Norwegian company Equinor won a 410 km2 lease located 48 km from Delaware Bay, with a potential capacity of 2 GW. The US$75m lease will produce enough power to supply about 900,000 US households.
In addition, the US utility Dominion Energy won a 714 km2 lease located 65 km from the entrance of Chesapeake Bay. The area, leased for US$17.65m, could support between 2.1 GW and 4 GW of offshore wind capacity. Six companies participated in the auction, which was the fifth offshore wind lease sale held during the current US administration.
At the federal level, the United States targets 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 15 GW of floating wind capacity by 2035. At the end of 2023, the US only had 42 MW of offshore wind capacity.
Do you want to become an expert on renewable energies auctions?
Discover our very detailed and regularly updated RES auctions database with worldwide coverage and a technical focus backed by academic research.
With our renewable energies auctions service you will be able to monitor auctions at a global level. Its (expanding) scope notably includes all major G20 countries and offers an especially fine tracking on Europe and South America.