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BOEM's bonanza: Up to 12 US offshore wind leases in the next five years

By: James Bernthal-Hooker 24/04/2024 US Dept of the Interior

General Turbines Windfarms

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold up to 12 offshore wind lease sales by the end of 2028. Today (24 April), Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the new five-year leasing schedule at the International Partnering Forum (IPF) conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

What does the schedule look like?

The new schedule sees up to four lease sales in 2024, one in 2025, one in 2026, two in 2027 and another four in 2028. This ambitious roadmap covers the east, west, and south coasts and waters that will suit both fixed and floating technology.

This year will see previously announced auctions: Central Atlantic (which released its proposed sale notice [PSN] in December 2023), the Gulf of Maine (which released its final wind energy area [WEA] this March), the Gulf of Mexico (a second round following a low turn-out last year; this is also at the PSN stage), and Oregon (the second west coast offshore wind sale after California; two final WEAs are designated).

A third round in the Gulf of Mexico is set for 2025, while a second round in the Central Atlantic, potentially including an area off Massachusetts, is due in 2026. 2027 will see new sales in the Gulf of Mexico and the New York Bight – the latter could include deeper waters, further out to sea than those in the historic 2022 auction which yielded bids totalling $4.37 billion for six leases.

In 2028, BOEM intends to auction more areas in California and the Gulf of Maine, as well as a site or sites in Hawaii and a yet-unannounced US territory. Hawaiian offshore wind has been on BOEM’s radar for several years now, with the first task force meeting taking place back in 2012. In 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a cost and feasibility analysis for floating wind in the O’ahu region.

BOEM is busy

BOEM released its first five-year lease schedule in 2021, and it covered the period 2021-2025. Under that plan, the bureau has executed sales in the New York Bight, Carolina Long Bay, California, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Also today, Secretary Haaland announced that BOEM and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) have finalised updated regulations for renewable energy development on the outer continental shelf.

According to the Department of the Interior, the new rule ‘increases certainty and reduces the costs associated with the deployment of offshore wind projects by modernising regulations, streamlining overly complex processes and removing unnecessary ones, clarifying ambiguous regulatory provisions, and enhancing compliance requirements.’ The department suggests that, over the next 20 years, it will save the offshore wind industry around $1.9 billion.

The proposed modernisation rule was released in January 2023. It eliminates some developer requirements while increasing survey flexibility. “This final rule incorporates lessons learned since we first published the offshore renewable energy regulations almost 15 years ago,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “It will reduce costs and unnecessary burdens to industry, while ensuring that offshore renewable energy development is done in a safe and environmentally sound manner.”

TGS is attending IPF, and following all the latest updates in the US and global offshore wind markets. We provide valuable data and analysis, helping the entire value chain navigate these changing winds.

For more information about offshore wind farm projects across the globe, click here.

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BOEM's bonanza: Up to 12 US offshore wind leases in the next five years

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