The US Department of the Interior on Wednesday proposed the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico as it wants to expand offshore wind development to more areas of the country.
The Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) includes a 102,480-acre (41,472 ha) area offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana, and two areas offshore Galveston, Texas. The Texas areas span 102,480 acres and 96,786 acres, and BOEM is seeking comments on whether both should be offered in the Final Sale Notice and which would be preferred if only one is offered.
The areas have the potential to generate power for almost 1.3 million homes, the department said.
After the PSN is published in the Federal Register on February 24, there will be a 60-day public comment period. Proposed lease stipulations cover workforce training, domestic supply chain development, fishery protection and community engagement.
The proposed sale is part of the leasing plans outlined by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in 2021. In late 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) designated two wind energy areas in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore development in a step towards the first offshore wind lease sale in the region.
The announcement of the lease proposal is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s latest steps to advance offshore wind, building on the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The White House also announced that California and Louisiana are joining the Federal-State Offshore Wind Implementation Partnership that was launched last year by US president Joe Biden and 11 East Coast governors. In addition, several departments today are launching a two-day Floating Offshore Wind Shot Summit.
When it comes to floating wind, the Department of Energy (DOE) is initiating a new West Coast Offshore Wind Transmission Study, a 20-month analysis looking into ways to expand transmission for the purposes of the sector.
At the same time, it was announced that California is the seventh state, and first along the West Coast, to join the National Offshore Wind Research and Development Consortium (NOWRDC).
Also, the DOE and its Sandia National Laboratories and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are developing an industry-informed roadmap for new operations and maintenance technologies and processes for the sector, while DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and BOEM have deployed a floating scientific research buoy off Oahu, Hawaii.
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A picture from Cathie Associates visit to the US’ first commercial offshore wind farm; Block Island.
