The US Department of Interior has proposed a second offshore wind energy auction in the Gulf of Mexico, covering four areas offshore Louisiana and Texas.
The proposed lease sale areas total 410,060 acres (165,945 ha) and will support the USA’s goal of having 30 GW of power produced by offshore wind by 2030. It follows the first-ever offshore wind energy lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico – including two lease areas offshore Galveston, Texas, and a third 102,480-acre (41,472.2-ha) lot offshore Lake Charles, Louisiana – last year.
That auction produced lacklustre results, with only two companies bidding on the Lake Charles area and the Galveston lease areas receiving no bids.
Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, the Department of Interior has approved the nation’s first six commercial scale offshore wind projects and held four offshore wind lease auctions – including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf Coasts. It has also initiated environmental reviews of 12 offshore wind projects and advanced the process to access and establish additional wind energy areas in Oregon, Gulf of Maine and the Central Atlantic.
The proposed sale notice for the second auction in the Gulf of Mexico will now enter a public comment period ending on May 20, 2024. Then, if the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) decides to proceed with the auction, the next step would be publication of a final sale notice.
