Written by
Nick Blenkey
Three of the brand new areas are off the coast of Texas, and one is off the coast of Louisiana.
Regardless of the tepid response to its first Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease public sale, the U.S. Division of the Inside immediately introduced its proposal for a second GoM offshore wind lease sale The proposed lease sale consists of 4 areas offshore Louisiana and Texas, totaling 410,060 acres, which have the potential to energy 1.2 million properties.
Three of the brand new areas are off the coast of Texas, and one is off the coast of Louisiana.
The primary GoM offshore wind lease sale, in August final yr, produced just one profitable bid. RWE Offshore US Gulf, LLC was the winner of the Lake Charles Lease Space, off Louisiana, with a excessive bid of simply $5.6 million, a fraction of the billion-dollar bids for East Coast offshore wind leases within the Atlantic Ocean. There have been no bids in any respect for the 2 lease areas off Texas.
As we famous then, low bid costs had been to be anticipated, on condition that Gulf Coast improvement require investing in floating wind, a nonetheless new know-how, wind speeds are decrease than within the Atlantic and hurricanes are a regional seasonal actuality.
The absence of any bids for the websites offshore Texas was seen as attributable to the state’s having no official goal for offshore wind manufacturing and to the best way the Texas electrical energy market works.
Be that as it could, Inside appears undaunted concerning the prospects for this second GoM offshore wind lease sale.
“At present’s announcement is one other step ahead within the Biden-Harris administration’s pursuit of constructing a clear vitality future and allowing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind vitality capability by 2030,” stated Secretary of the Inside Deb Haaland. “We’re taking motion to jumpstart America’s offshore wind trade and utilizing American innovation to ship dependable, inexpensive energy to properties and companies, whereas additionally addressing the local weather disaster.”
“BOEM is proud to play a number one function within the administration’s clear vitality efforts,” stated BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “We look ahead to receiving suggestions from tribes, different authorities companies, ocean customers, native communities, and others to reduce any impacts to pure and cultural sources, scale back potential conflicts with ocean makes use of, and keep a wholesome marine ecosystem.”
GREEN HYDROGEN PRODUCTION?
With immediately’s announcement, BOEM is searching for suggestions on varied points of the proposed lease areas, together with dimension, orientation, and placement of the 4 lease areas and which areas, if any, needs to be prioritized for inclusion or exclusion from this lease sale. BOEM can be searching for touch upon potential lease revisions to incorporate the manufacturing of hydrogen or different vitality merchandise utilizing wind turbine turbines on the lease.
This raises the fascinating thought that producing inexperienced hydrogen offshore Texas might be extra worthwhile than producing electrical energy there.
BOEM is proposing to conduct simultaneous auctions for every of the 4 lease areas utilizing multiple-factor bidding. The company says that it’s going to use new public sale software program for enhanced effectivity, with minor changes to public sale guidelines utilized in earlier offshore wind lease auctions.
The Proposed Sale Discover for the brand new GoM offshore wind lease sale will publish within the Federal Register March 21, 2024 (learn the prepublication model), initiating a 60-day public remark interval ending on Might 20, 2024. If BOEM decides to proceed with the public sale, the subsequent step could be publication of a Ultimate Sale Discover.
