The Government officials said they are planning to set up a competitive leasing structure and they plan to provide lease sales of 278,000 acres, or about 432 square miles of federal waters in the Atlantic Coast. Though US is second in the World in terms of Onshore Wind Installed Capacity, US is still yet to install an Commercial Offshore Wind Farm. This new ruling will definitely give a boost to the struggling Wind Market, as the Production Tax credit period is drawing to a close in US.
According to Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the proposed area has approximately 4 GW of Wind energy potential. BOEM, which will be heading this project will initiate the 60-day comment period till February 1, 2013. Comments received or postmarked by that date will be made available to the public and considered prior to the publication of the Final Sale Notices. BOEM will host a public seminar during the comment period to introduce potential stakeholders to the auction format, explain the auction rules and demonstrate the auction process through meaningful examples.
How the Offshore Area be divided?
1. Massachusetts and Rhode Island:
The Federal waters in the Cost of Massachusetts and Rhode Island will be divided into two Zones - North and South Zones. Of which 97,500 acres having a capacity of more than 1GW of offshore wind development will be in the North Zone. 67,250 acres, capable of producing another 1 GW will be allotted in the South Zone.
Proposed Rhode Island Area Map: Click here
Propose Massachusetts Area Map: Click here
2. Virginia
An Area of about 112,800 acres will be leased in the coast of Virginia. The location of the area is just 23.5 nautical miles from Virginia's southern coast. And this area, according to estimates have a production capacity of 2 GW.
Proposed Virginia Area Map: Click here
Still Road blocks to Developers?
The Government will conduct three lease rounds for the three zones, and the winners of these zones will receive rights to submit a construction and operations plan in front of BOEM. BOEM will later conduct site assessment activities which has been given a five year time frame. Also Developers cannot proceed with the construction of the project, until they receive the environmental clearances, which may delay the project even longer.
The Cape Wind Project, one of the first Offshore Projects planned in US, about fifteen years ago, is still to start construction.
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