New York Bight in Biden's sights for 'historic' near-10GW offshore wind lease sale
Priority zones Fairways North and South and Hudson North, all located south of Long Island, and Hudson South east of New Jersey cued up for bids as early as Q4 by BOEM
US President Joe Biden’s administration has marked out a swathe of the New York Bight between Long Island and the New Jersey coast for its first round of competitive Atlantic offshore wind lease area sales, set to launch as early as the fourth quarter.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the federal industry regulator, said it identified four “priority” zones within the Bight that for administrative purposes will comprise a single Wind Energy Area (WEA) totalling an estimated 9.6GW of wind power capacity.
There is strong investor interest in the New York Bight due to its proximity to the nation’s largest metropolitan region. Revenue from future lease sales should comfortably exceed the winning bid three years ago, although this will be influenced by the ultimate configuration of the areas to be awarded and other factors such as ease of interconnection.
Aside from giving the emerging industry more space for development necessary to meet offshore wind capacity procurement goals in both states, lease sales would provide the US treasury with a new revenue stream in an era of record federal budget deficits.
New Jersey is targeting 7.5GW also by 2035 and has awarded 1.1GW so far. Governor Phil Murphy’s administration will announce winners of the state’s second tender for up to 2.4GW of capacity in the second quarter.
The bureau’s primary 2018 recommendations for usable area would allow 3.8GW of commercial-scale capacity development and secondary recommendations a further 5.8GW.
At that time, the agency’s determinations were controversial, in part, because the proposed shrunken sizes of Fairways North and Fairways South left little area for development, prompting NYSERDA to recommend removing both from consideration.
Commercial fishing groups were critical of that the federal consultative process for selection of the zones under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump, arguing that BOEM did not adequately address a perceived enormous risk posed by the offshore wind industry to the marine environment and sustainable US seafood production in the region.
NYSERDA issued a statement pledging to work closely with BOEM and others at the federal and state levels to “seize the historic opportunities that lies head” to grow New York’s offshore wind pipeline expeditiously.
That said, state officials are taking a hard look at what BOEM is proposing to advance development and expect to provide formal feedback at the next New York-New Jersey meeting of the New York Bight offshore wind task force with the agency. No date has been set.
Meanwhile, BOEM will conduct an environmental review of the New York Bight WEA to examine potential environmental consequences of site assessment and characterisation activities associated with issuance of leases in the zones.
The study will also consider project easements associated with each potential lease issued, and grants for subsea export cable corridors.
As part of this process, BOEM is seeking public input on issues and alternatives to be considered in the so-called Environmental Assessment by 28 April. Other federal departments, and local, state, and tribal governments can also cooperate in preparation of the study.
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