Offshore

What to know about the New York Bight offshore wind auction

What to know about the New York Bight offshore wind auction
(The New York Bight offshore wind lease auction fetched a record $4.37 billion from companies looking to develop the waters.)

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) scheduled an offshore wind energy lease auction for 480,000 acres in the New York Bight area off New York and New Jersey.

Offshore wind developers were expected to bid Feb. 23 on six lease areas, the most ever for a single auction in U.S. history. The expected installed capacity for the lease auction represented a combined 5.6 GW to 7 GW, enough to power 2 million homes. 

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland called the New York Bight offshore wind lease auction "an inflection point for domestic offshore wind energy development."

Join us on April 13th for the next edition of the Renewable +Series on offshore wind. Developers, advocates, and policymakers will discuss the future of offshore wind energy along the Pacific Coast. Register here.

Lease auction area

The New York Bight offshore wind lease auction is divided into six territories.

The largest territory, OCS-A 0539, spans 125,964 acres 56 nautical miles (nmi) from New York and 32 nmi from New Jersey. This territory alone has an expected installed capacity of 1,387 MW. The depth of the area (purple on the map) is a minimum of 31m and a maximum of 51m.

BOEM said it would provide round-by-round updates to the online auction and announce provisional winners of the lease areas soon after the auction concludes.

Ambitious goals

New York and New Jersey have two of the most ambitious offshore wind targets in the U.S.

New York plans to develop 9 GW by 2035 and invest $500 million in manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure.

New Jersey, meanwhile, wants to develop 7.5 GW over the same period. The state has a plan to transition to 100% clean energy by 2050.

The Biden administration's goal of developing 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 is within reach, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The offshore wind project pipeline is now 30.7 GW by 2030.

 

Supply chain vision

A robust supply chain will be needed to meet New York and New Jersey's offshore wind goals.

BOEM, New York, and New Jersey released a report detailing their intention to collaborate on building out supply chain and manufacturing infrastructure in the coming years.

BOEM said it is committed to improving the permitting process for offshore wind projects and revising industry outreach efforts. The agency also plans to incentivize domestic procurement of manufacturing components.

New Jersey is establishing a Wind Institute in an effort to foster workforce development, training, and research for the offshore wind industry in the region. The state said it aims to help small businesses participate in offshore wind supply chain opportunities.

New York said it will encourage economic benefits and supply chain development in its competitive bidding for offshore wind renewable energy certificates.

Together, BOEM, New York, and New Jersey agreed to coordinate on mutual offshore wind goals through a working group.

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