Biden’s New York Bight bonanza hits US$3.35Bn level as auction rolls into third day

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) suspended the auction at 6.00 pm eastern standard time (EST) on 24 February after 46 rounds.

At stake in this, the first offshore wind energy auction under the Biden-Harris administration, are more than 488,000 acres that could be developed.

Of the US$3.35Bn already on the table for the lease areas in the New York Bight, the highest bids so far are for an area designated OCS-A 0539.

Bids for OCS-A -0539, highlighted in purple on the map shown here, currently stand at US$900M and could exceed the US$1Bn level. This is the largest of the areas being auctioned, with 114,277 developable acres and an installation capacity of 1,387 MW.

Not far behind is the OCS-A 0538 area, for which bids have reached US$720M, with a developable acreage of 79,438 and capacity of 964 MW; OCS-A 0537, with a developable acreage of 71,522 acres and capacity of 868 MW, for which bids stand at US$630M; and OCS-A 0541, with a developable area of 76,139 acres and potential capacity of 924 MW.

Bidding is set set to resume at 9.00 am EST on 25 February 2022, with a total area capable of being used to generate around 7 GW of offshore wind energy up for grabs.