US authorities will press ahead with the 800MW New York offshore wind auction on Thursday, despite a legal challenge by fisheries groups.
The plaintiffs last week requested a temporary restraining order to delay the sale, while the court considers its claim that regulators did not adequately consider the impact of wind power development on the region’s fishermen.
However, the group has dropped its injunction request and so the auction will take place as planned, a Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) spokesperson told reNEWS.
The lawsuit will proceed with a hearing set the week of 9 January.
The sale, meanwhile, is being held as a blind, ascending-bid online auction with the asking prices set by BOEM.
The 32,000-hectare area some 19km off the coast of Long Island has attracted more than a dozen developers, as well as the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Big hitters in the running include Dong Energy, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Innogy, Statoil, EDF and Iberdrola business Avangrid.
Other experienced developers include WPD, Energy Management, Fishermen’s Energy and Sea Breeze Energy. Convalt and Clean Power Northeast Development also qualified.
Deepwater Wind, which developed the Block Island offshore wind farm, qualified but has said it will sidestep the sale in the hope that NYSERDA claims the prize.
If NYSERDA wins the auction, it plans to fully characterize and develop the site, then combine the lease with an offtake mechanism and invite developers to bid on the package.
BOEM has added new wrinkles to the auction process that would benefit NYSERDA.
The federal agency will give a 10% bidding credit to any government authority that will be added to its cash bids.
It will also allow the auction winner to revoke its final offer, if the second-place bidder is a government entity.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
