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Interior Department Announces Historic Wind Energy Auction Offshore New York and New Jersey

Jan. 14, 2022
New York Bight lease sale has potential to generate up to 7 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy, power nearly two million homes

Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland recently announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will hold a wind auction next month for more than 480,000 acres offshore New York and New Jersey, in the area known as the New York Bight. This marks the first offshore wind lease sale under the Biden-Harris administration.

As described in BOEM's Final Sale Notice, the auction will take place on Feb. 23 and allow offshore wind developers to bid on six lease areas. BOEM estimates that the leases offered in this sale could result in 5.6 to 7 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind energy. 

In a press release from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), leaders from BOEM and the states of New York and New Jersey outlined their vision for developing an offshore wind domestic supply chain. In their plan, New York and New Jersey set the nation's largest regional offshore wind target of installing over 16 GW of offshore wind by 2035. The Biden-Harris administration has set an overall goal of installing 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030.

The United States’ growing offshore wind industry presents a $109 billion opportunity in revenue to businesses in the supply chain over the next decade, according to a recent report by The Special Initiative on Offshore Wind. 

The New York Bight offshore wind auction  is designed to promote the development of a domestic U.S. supply chain for offshore wind and enhance engagement with the commercial fishing industry, other ocean users and underserved communities. The leases are also intended to advance flexibility in transmission planning and make use of project labor agreements throughout the construction of offshore wind projects. A key feature of the leases are incentives to source major components domestically – such as blades, turbines and foundations – and to enter into project labor agreements to ensure projects are union-built.

BOEM initially asked for information and nominations of commercial interest for 1,735,154 acres in the Bight. Based on the bureau’s review of scientific data (and extensive input from the commercial fishing industry, Indian tribes, partnering agencies, key stakeholders and the public) BOEM reduced the acreage by -72% to avoid conflicts with ocean users and minimize environmental impacts. BOEM will continue to engage with stakeholders as the process unfolds.

More information about the auction, lease stipulations, list of qualified bidders for the auction and Interior’s collaboration with New York and New Jersey can be found on BOEM's website. 

For more information, read the Interior Department's full press release.