US announces upcoming 6GW offshore tender for Central Atlantic

The lease areas on offer could generate up to 6.3GW of clean, renewable energy and power up to 2.2 million homes, said BOEM, which is part of the US Department of the Interior (DOI).

The sites are 410km away² area off Delaware and Maryland and a 714km² area off Virginia.

A third site – off Maryland – was left out, after BOEM conceded that offshore wind developers would incur “significant costs” mitigating impacts on the military and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) activities there.

The omitted Maryland site could be considered for a lease sale as soon as 2026, BOEM has said.

“We are excited to announce this sale and underscore our commitment to explore additional areas in the Central Atlantic for potential offshore wind energy development,” said BOEM director Elizabeth Klein. “BOEM will continue to work with all ocean users to ensure offshore wind energy proceeds in an environmentally responsible manner.”

Under President Joe Biden, the DOI has approved the first eight commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects in US federal waters. BOEM has held four offshore wind lease sales, including off New York, New Jersey and the Carolinas, as well as the first offshore tenders off the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts.

The DOI recently announced a schedule of up to 12 additional lease sales through 2028.

Lease sales may be delayed after January 2025, when the next presidency starts. Biden is running for a second term.

However, his opponent, Donald Trump, opposes the development of offshore wind and has called climate change a “hoax”.

In last week’s first presidential debate, when Trump referred to a “green news scam,” he was, perhaps, referring to the Biden-backed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. The IRA offers tax credits for wind and other clean energy development.