Just days after America’s first offshore wind farm began sending power to residents in nearby Rhode Island, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced a record lease sale of $42.5 million for 320-square kilometres of seabed contained in the wind-rich offshore zone known as the New York Wind Energy Area.
After 33 rounds of intensive bidding from some of the world’s biggest wind power companies, Norway’s Statoil emerged as the winner of the auction with a record-breaking offer of USD $42,469,725.
The New York Wind Energy Area is located 30-60 kilometres off the coast of New York and Long Island and covers an area of 79,350 acres of open water. Water depths in the zone vary between 20-40 metres. Statoil believes the lease could accommodate over one gigawatt of offshore wind power.
“We are excited to have submitted the most competitive bid in a highly attractive project, Statoil’s first offshore wind lease in the United States,” said Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil´s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions.
“We now look forward to working with New York’s state agencies and contribute to New York meeting its future energy needs by applying our offshore experience and engineering expertise.”
The competitive auction process was America’s sixth for renewable energy in offshore waters. During the past eight years, BOEM has awarded 11 commercial wind leases, generating $16 million in winning bids and granting access to over one million acres of federally-controlled waters to wind developers.
Statoil has extensive experience on the global offshore wind power scene. The company developed the unique Hywind floating wind turbine system, which can operate in depths beyond 100 metres, and was used to build the world’s first floating wind farm – the UK’s Hywind Scotland project.
The record auction is also good news for New York’s clean power plans, part of which include a target of producing 50 percent of all energy from renewable sources by 2030.
“Investment from such an established player in the offshore oil and gas industry illustrates how offshore wind is the next frontier in energy development,” said Nancy Sopko, Manager, Advocacy and Federal Legislative Affairs for the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).
“Over the past decade there has been consistent progress toward the realization of offshore wind power’s potential in America. The completion of today’s auction increases the strong momentum building to develop more of this ocean energy resource.”
