Biden officials sweet on new Carolinas offshore wind leasing in 2022
Federal BOEM unveils timetable for 1.6GW Wilmington East auction to be wrapped up by June next year
The US government is advancing toward a commercial offshore wind lease sale in 2022 for the 1.6GW Wilmington East area in federal waters facing the coasts of North and South Carolina, in a move that will open fresh market opportunities for the fast-emerging sector.
While the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the federal industry regulator, is on record as “considering” a sale, at a recent regional meeting it unveiled a tentative schedule that calls for a competitive auction by 15 May next year and execution of a lease by the end of June.
In 2015, BOEM identified Wilmington East and two other zones – Kitty Hawk and Wilmington West – for potential commercial development. Kitty Hawk is located off the far northern coast of North Carolina near Virginia, while the much smaller Wilmington West also faces both Carolinas, but is closer to shore than Wilmington East.
BOEM last week announced it is preparing a second EA to “supplement” the earlier one to “consider additional offshore wind leasing options along the Carolinas and is seeking public comment.” The 30-day comment period ends 13 September.
This EA will evaluate “new circumstances and information” relevant to reasonably foreseeable environmental impacts that could occur from site characterisation and assessment activities associated with leases in Wilmington East, according to the agency.
Some of this new information includes a recent marine cultural resources survey, changes in the status of some Endangered Species Act-listed species, the listing of new species, and the designation of the North Atlantic Right Whale Critical Habitat.
“Environmental reviews are essential to a strong resource management programme,” said BOEM Director Amanda Lefton. “At BOEM, scientific based decision-making remains a top priority and will inform the path forward offshore the Carolinas.”
According to BOEM’s “leasing strategy/schedule” for Wilmington East presented to both states’ stakeholders in July, the agency aims to publish a proposed sale notice (PSN) by 31 October for public comment through the end of this year.
A final sale notice (FSN) would be published no later than 31 March next year with a mock auction in April leading to a lease sale the following month with the process ending in an executed lease or leases by 1 July.
The 8GW ambition is second only to New York (9GW by 2035) among US east coast states and ahead of New Jersey (7.5GW), Massachusetts (5.6GW) and Virginia (5.2GW).
New York’s $1.7trn economy is almost triple the size of North Carolina’s $603bn and it has almost double the population with 19.4 million against 10.5 million.
Even so, developers view the Carolinas as attractive new markets for offshore wind as the vertically integrated utilities responsible for the entire flow of electricity to most consumers there are shifting to cleaner sources of power generation.
Avangrid’s Kitty Hawk will deliver power to PJM Interconnection which operates a wholesale electricity to all or parts of 13 states and District of Columbia. PJM serves northeast North Carolina and Virginia, the two target markets for the project’s initial 800MW to 1GW stage.
Despite Cooper’s enthusiasm for offshore wind for economic development and environmental reasons, there is growing opposition to the sector in Brunswick County, the southernmost in North Carolina. Some shoreline residents there assert that installation of turbines in Wilmington East will create viewshed issues and destroy property values.
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