US Schedules Gulf of Maine Offshore Wind Auction

The U.S. Interior Department on Monday announced an offshore wind energy lease sale on Oct. 29 for eight areas on the Outer Continental Shelf off Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine.

If fully developed, these areas have a potential capacity of about 13 gigawatts of clean offshore wind energy, which could power more than 4.5 million homes.

Earlier this month, Interior announced final approval of a wind project off the coast of Maryland, bringing the U.S. halfway to its goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of the clean energy technology by 2030.

The Department has held five offshore wind lease sales, including a sale offshore New York and sales offshore the Pacific, Central Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, and approved 10 commercial-scale offshore wind projects.

The Final Sale Notice will publish in the Federal Register on Sept. 17. The issuance of a lease does not authorize the construction and operations of an offshore wind facility. It simply provides the right to submit project-specific plans.

(Reuters - Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)