US developer Deepwater Wind plans to stay out of the auction for the New York offshore wind lease area and vie for the site later, when a power purchase agreement (PPA) is in place.
“We think it’s better to have the lease and the power purchase agreement together, like in Europe,” Deepwater president Chris van Beek told reNEWS at AWEA Offshore 2016. “It reduces the risk,” he said.
Up to 20 companies are expected to qualify for the sale, including the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
If it is successful, NYSERDA plans to complete all the development work before packaging it with an offtake mechanism. It plans to select a project developer through a competitive process.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is expected to release soon a list of qualified bidders, with seven having already made the grade including Deepwater, EDF, Fishermen’s Energy, Energy Management Inc and Sea Breeze Energy.
The auction is expected in December.
Elsewhere, Deepwater is mulling larger turbines for the 90MW South Fork proposal off Rhode Island/Massachusetts “to optimize the project,” said van Beek.
The company is considering 12 8MW turbines with total capacity of 96MW. Van Beek said that would be over capacity, but because the long transmission line will result in losses and so the larger capacity would still deliver 90MW.
The Long Island Power Authority is negotiating final details of a power purchase agreement and is expected to vote on the deal in December.
Image: Deepwater Wind
