DELMARVA - The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced the sale of two leases for proposed offshore wind sites off the coast of Delmarva Wednesday.
The auction for the two leases was previously announced by the Biden-Harris administration in June.
According to the Department, the first lease area consists of 101,443 acres about 26 nautical miles from the Delaware Bay. During Tuesday’s auction, Equinor Wind US LLC provisionally won the lease at $75,001,001, according to the Department of the Interior.
The second area, 176,505 acres about 35 nautical miles from the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, went to Virginia Electric and Power Co for a bid of $17,650,500.
The Department of the Interior says the areas have the potential to power over 2.2 million homes with clean energy and is a continuation of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to grow the offshore wind industry in the U.S.
“Today’s sale resulted in over $23 million total bidding credits,” a press release from the Department of the Interior reads. “These bidding credits will result in over $11 million in investments for workforce training and domestic supply chain, and an additional $11 million for fisheries compensatory mitigation.”
The Department says the awarded leases do not automatically authorize the construction or operation of an offshore wind facility, and that both companies will have to submit project proposals for review. A similar review is currently taking place with U.S. Wind’s proposed offshore wind project off the coast of Worcester County, MD and Sussex County, DE.
More information on the sale, leases, and the offshore areas can be found here.