Auction for offshore wind farms in Massachusetts sets record

An auction to lease three offshore wind farm locations off the coast of Massachusetts fetched a record $405 million last week.

The winners were Equinor; Mayflower Wind Energy, a Royal Dutch Shell and EDP Renewables joint venture; and Vineyard Wind. Overall, 11 companies participated in the auction.

The three winning bids all exceeded the previous record bid for a single lease area of $42.5 million set by Equinor, then Statoil, in a 2016 New York lease auction.

As these three Massachusetts locations are in federal waters, winning bids and subsequent lease payments will provide a boost to federal revenue. Going forward, there will be multiple opportunities for feedback from the public and interested parties before the construction of wind farms can begin.

“The intense competition we’ve seen in this offshore wind lease auction is completely unprecedented. With strong support from Secretary [Ryan] Zinke, Massachusetts and other states, global businesses now recognize the potential of America’s world-class offshore wind resources,” Nancy Sopko, director of offshore wind for the American Wind Energy Association, said. “Today’s biggest winners are the American workers who will help build and operate these wind farms and the consumers who will soon have access to a new large-scale source of clean, reliable electricity.”

Massachusetts has a goal of generating 3.2 gigawatts (GW) offshore wind by 2035 – one of the most ambitious offshore wind policies in the nation. When fully developed, these three lease areas could support approximately 4.1 GW of commercial wind generation. This is enough electricity to power nearly 1.5 million homes, according to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM).

BOEM, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, is responsible for offshore wind energy area identification and leasing. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said the expansion of offshore wind is a key element in the Trump Administration’s made-in-America energy strategy. BOEM has now awarded 16 commercial offshore wind leases from Massachusetts to North Carolina.