First wind energy lease sale off the US West Coast expected to draw strong interest

On October 18, the US Department of the Interior announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) would hold an offshore wind energy lease sale today, for areas on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) off central and northern California. This is the first wind energy lease sale on the US West Coast.

Five leases are for sale through a multiple-factor bidding auction starting at 10:00 am EST. A total of 373,267 acres are available in two wind energy areas (WEAs): the Humboldt WEA offshore the north coast and the Morro Bay WEA offshore the central coast.

BOEM completed environmental reviews of potential impacts from offshore wind energy leasing activities in the two WEAs earlier this year and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for each area.

In each round of the auction, a bidder can bid for at most one of the offered leases at a time. A bidder can switch between different lease areas from round to round, but it must bid in each round, and ultimately it can acquire only one of the leases in the auction.

Forty-three companies qualified to bid in the auction.

BOEM anticipates that the auction could extend over two or more consecutive business days.
Project-specific plans developed by the winning bidders would be subject to environmental, technical and public reviews prior to BOEM approval.