Equinor ASA and Dominion Power Inc. on Thursday provisionally received two wind vitality leases spanning a mixed 277,948 acres offshore Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
The sale is the primary within the Central Atlantic in a decade, the Bureau of Ocean Power Administration (BOEM) stated in an announcement. The 101,443-acre Lease OCS-A 0557, about 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay, went to Equinor subsidiary Equinor Wind US LLC, which received with a $75 million bid. Dominion’s Virginia Electrical and Energy Co. received the 176,505-acre Lease OCS-A 0558, round 35 nautical miles from the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, after providing $17.7 million. Six firms competed within the public sale.
The brand new leases are anticipated to unlock 6.3 gigawatts (GW) of technology, sufficient to energy 2.2 million properties, in response to the BOEM’s announcement of the sale June 28, 2024.
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“Equinor will now work with BOEM to certify the lease, and after regulatory approvals, the Central Atlantic web site could be added to Equinor’s current U.S. offshore wind portfolio”, the bulk state-owned Norwegian vitality main stated in a separate press launch. Equinor plans to begin energy manufacturing from the world 2035.
“The Central Atlantic area has a quickly rising demand for electrical energy with widespread assist for including renewable sources of vitality into the ability combine”, stated Molly Morris, president of Equinor Renewables Americas.
Dominion received an space adjoining to its under-construction Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind.
“Offshore wind is important to our all-of-the-above method to fulfill the unprecedented progress of our buyer electrical demand over the following decade”, Dominion chair, president and chief govt Robert M. Blue stated in an organization assertion. “Successful this lease space offers us one other low-cost possibility to fulfill that rising demand whereas offering our prospects with dependable, inexpensive and rising clear vitality”.
The businesses want environmental clearance earlier than building can proceed.
The Biden administration has now accomplished 5 offshore wind lease auctions, together with for areas in New Jersey, New York, the Carolinas and the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts.
On April 24, 2024, Inside Secretary Deb Haaland introduced a brand new five-year offshore wind leasing plan for the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific and U.S. territories. 4 awards are deliberate for 2024, one every for 2025 and 2026, two for 2027 and 4 for 2028.
The U.S. goals to succeed in 30 GW of offshore wind deployment by 2030, towards at the least 110 GW by 2050, as introduced by the Power Division March 29, 2021.
“In the beginning of the Administration, our nation had accredited zero offshore wind vitality initiatives”, Haaland stated Wednesday. “At the moment, we have now 9 – sufficient to energy almost 5 million properties. That is what creating a clear vitality transition seems like”. The Inside Division’s accredited offshore wind initiatives have a mixed capability of 13 GW.
The BOEM, an Inside sub-agency, added, “The Division has additionally taken steps to develop a sustainable offshore wind trade by encouraging using venture labor agreements, strengthening workforce coaching, bolstering a home provide chain, and thru enhanced engagement with Tribes, fisheries, communities and ocean customers”.
Of the $23 million bidding credit from the most recent lease sale, $11 million is predicted to be invested into workforce coaching and the home provide chain and $11 million is predicted to be spent on fisheries compensatory mitigation.
The BOEM stated it can proceed to discover extra areas within the Central Atlantic that may very well be supplied for offshore wind growth. On June 7, 2024, it introduced a memorandum of understanding with Maryland beneath which the federal and state authorities agreed to pursue potential offshore wind leases.
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