The Bureau of Ocean Power Administration (BOEM) has finalized 4 new Wind Power Areas (WEAs) within the Gulf of Mexico, following the first-ever Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale earlier this yr.
“Creating an offshore wind business within the Gulf of Mexico will take time and partnership. BOEM is pursuing one other offshore wind lease sale within the Gulf of Mexico as a consequence of continued business curiosity and suggestions from our companions and key stakeholders,” says BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein.
Earlier than finalizing the WEAs, BOEM collaborated with NOAA’s Nationwide Facilities for Coastal Ocean Science to construct a mannequin that analyzed your entire Gulf of Mexico ecosystem to establish and decrease potential conflicts with marine assets and ocean customers. BOEM additionally integrated suggestions from Tribes, different authorities companies, ocean customers, and others to assist establish potential offshore areas that appeared best suited for offshore wind vitality improvement.
The 4 WEAs are:
- Choice J: 495,567 acres situated roughly 47.2 miles off the coast of Texas, with the potential to help initiatives that would energy 2.1 million properties;
- Choice Ok: 119,635 acres situated roughly 61.5 miles off the coast of Texas, with the potential to help initiatives that would energy 508,200 properties;
- Choice L: 91,157 acres situated roughly 52.9 miles off the coast of Texas, with the potential to help initiatives that would energy 387,450 properties;
- Choice N: 56,978 acres situated roughly 82 miles off the coast of Louisiana with the potential to help initiatives that would energy roughly 242,000 properties.
Maps of the WEAs may be discovered on BOEM’s web site. The subsequent steps in BOEM’s renewable vitality aggressive leasing course of embrace issuing a Proposed Sale Discover with a 60-day public remark interval.
The primary Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale introduced in a excessive bid of $5.6 million from RWE Offshore US Gulf LLC for the Lake Charles Lease Space, which has the potential to help as much as 1.24 GW of offshore wind vitality.
For extra data, go to https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/gulf-mexico-activities.
