The US has completed an auction for the 3.4GW 344,000-acre New Jersey offshore wind lease area off Atlantic City.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management expects to reveal the provisional winner or winners shortly.
After six rounds, bidding had reached $1,599,458 including a $880,715 bid for the 160,480-acre south lease area and $718,743 for the 183,353-acre north lease area.
Thirteen companies qualified to participate in today’s sale: Convalt Energy, Garden State Offshore Energy 1 (Deepwater Wind and PSEG), EDF Renewable Energy Development, Cape Wind proponent Energy Management Inc, Fishermen’s Energy, Green Sail Energy (formed by ex-Bluewater Wind principals), Iberdola Renewables, New Jersey Offshore Wind, OffshoreMW, RES America Developments, Sea Breeze Energy, US Mainstream Renewable Power (Offshore) and US Wind.
BOEM decided to proceed with the sale despite uncertainty over the state’s offshore renewable energy certificate program. New Jersey has passed a law that requires utilities to purchase electricity from offshore wind farms, however the Board of Public Utilities has yet to develop an OREC scheme.
The New Jersey lease area begins seven miles offshore from Atlantic City and extends from Cape May north for 60 miles to Barnegat.
Today’s sale is BOEM’s fifth such auction. RES/Dong and OffshoreMW paid a combined $448,000 for two sites off Massachusetts, Italian outfit Renexia bid $8.7m for the 1.45GW Maryland, Deepwater paid $3.8m for the 1GW Rhode Island zone and regulated utility Dominion bid $1.6m for a 2GW lease area off Virginia.
BOEM expects to auction three lease areas off North Carolina next year and planning is underway for New York and South Carolina.
Image: Atlantic City from Fishermen’s Energy met buoy (Fishermen’s Energy)
