The Department of the Interior on Aug. 29 announced it will hold an offshore wind energy lease sale off southern Oregon.
The two areas to be auctioned on October 15, 2024, by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management could generate more than 3.1 gigawatts of energy if fully developed.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Department has approved the nation’s first nine commercial scale offshore wind projects, held five offshore wind lease sales, including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts, and advanced the process to establish additional Wind Energy Areas in the Gulf of Maine.
Earlier this year, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a schedule of additional lease sales through 2028.
Thus far, the Department has approved more than 13 gigawatts of energy from offshore wind projects.
The Final Sale Notice is the last step before the sale itself in the competitive lease award process. It includes details regarding certain provisions and conditions of the leases, auction details, the lease form, criteria for evaluating competing bids, award procedures, appeal procedures, and lease execution.
The FSN, which will publish in the Federal Register on September 3, 2024, includes two areas offshore Oregon. Lease Area P-OCS 0566 (Coos Bay) consists of 61,203 acres and is approximately 32 miles from shore. Lease Area P-OCS 0567 (Brookings) consists of 133,792 acres and is around 18 miles from shore.
The FSN includes several lease stipulations designed to promote the development of, among other things, a robust domestic U.S. supply chain for floating wind and advance flexibility in transmission planning.
Among the stipulations, BOEM will offer bidding credits for bidders who enter into community benefit agreements or invest in workforce training or supply chain development; require winning bidders to make efforts to enter into project labor agreements; and require engagement with Tribes, underserved communities, ocean users, and others.
Eighteen lease conditions were added to address requirements from the State of Oregon’s concurrence with BOEM’s Federal Consistency Determination.
The issuance of any lease resulting from this sale would not constitute an approval of project-specific plans to develop offshore wind energy.
Such plans, if submitted, would be subject to subsequent environmental, technical, and public reviews prior to a decision on whether the proposed development should be authorized.
BOEM will continue to work through its Oregon Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force, which includes representatives from federal, state and local agencies and Tribal governments, to coordinate on potential leasing and support ongoing stakeholder engagement processes on broader offshore wind considerations — for example, state-led development of a strategic roadmap on offshore wind, which can help inform the multi-year process for proposed projects.
Details on the FSN, along with a map of the Lease Areas can be found on the BOEM’s website.
