BOEM intends to lease more wind farm area off Delaware coast

December 15, 2023 2

The U.S. Department of the Interior recently announced a proposal of another offshore wind lease sale, this time in ocean waters about 26 nautical miles from Delaware Bay.

“We are taking action to jumpstart America’s offshore wind industry and using American innovation to deliver reliable, affordable power to homes and businesses, while also addressing the climate crisis,” said Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a prepared statement.

According to the announcement, the new areas have the potential to power more than 2.2 million homes with clean energy.

This proposed sale is more than a year in the making. In November 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced the creation of eight draft wind energy areas off North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, covering about 1.7 million acres. Then in July, the bureau announced three final areas off Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, covering about 356,550 acres.

The recent announcement also includes a lease area due east of Virginia, about 35 nautical miles from the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. A third area, about 23.5 nautical miles offshore of Ocean City, Md., covering about 78,000 acres, was removed from the proposed lease sale, but could be considered again.

This would be the 10th wind lease sale in the Atlantic Ocean. According to documents associated with the announcement, BOEM has proposed a minimum bid of $100 per acre. The lease area east of Delaware and Maryland has 101,443 acres, which means it would require a minimum bid of $10.13 million. The lease area east of Virginia has 176,505 acres, which means it would require a minimum bid of $17.65 million.

This new lease area would be in addition to the lease areas off Delaware and Maryland that are already under contract with Ørsted and US Wind. Ørsted is the Danish-based power company pursuing a wind farm about 17 miles due east of Delaware. US Wind’s lease area is about 8.7 nautical miles off Maryland and about nine nautical miles offshore from Sussex County.

The proposed sale notice initiates a 60-day public comment period. Comments must be submitted to BOEM no later than Saturday, Feb. 10. Comments can be submitted electronically at regulations.gov. Enter [BOEM-2023-0062] into the search bar.

For more information on the project, go to boem.gov and enter Central Atlantic in the search bar.