Two energy companies submitted winning bids Tuesday to build floating offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine, committing nearly $22 million for half the area available in the largest offshore wind lease sale in the U.S.
Avangrid Renewables LLC of Portland, Ore., and a unit of Avangrid Inc., a subsidiary of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, bid $4.9 million for 98,565 acres and $6.2 million for nearly 125,000 acres in an auction conducted by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The two areas leased by the federal government are about 30 nautical miles from Massachusetts, officials said.
Invenergy NE Offshore Wind LLC, which has two wind leases off the coasts of California and New Jersey, bid $4.9 million for 97,854 acres about 46 nautical miles from Maine and $5.9 million for 117,780 acres about 22 nautical miles from Massachusetts.
The leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said. In all, the federal government looked to lease eight areas in an 850,000-acre site.
The successful bids move Maine closer to staking its claim in offshore wind development and drew praise from environmentalists.
“I am thrilled to see the next step toward bringing homegrown offshore wind to Maine that will create good, union jobs, get us off of volatile and expensive fossil fuels, and help to protect families from further climate disasters,” Lucy Hochschartner, climate and clean energy director at Maine Conservation Voters, said in an email.
Jeff Marks, executive director of ClimateWork Maine, a business group working on climate issues, said the auction results will “help build a strong and competitive Maine-based offshore wind industry and supply chain.
“If Maine is to compete on a global scale, the state must attract financial investment,” he said. “Maine’s floating offshore wind industry is a competitive market advantage in the energy sector, with the possibility of developing skilled labor, new technologies, new product lines, and new projects.”
Federal officials last week rejected Maine’s application for $456 million to build an offshore wind port at Sears Island. The decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation complicates Maine’s effort to establish a presence in the offshore wind energy industry.
The state has said it will continue to seek funding, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine said the lease sale “bolsters Maine’s leadership on floating offshore wind,” with the developers of the lease areas poised to serve as potential commercial partners for a proposed offshore wind port on Sears Island.
This story will be updated.
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