Avangrid and Invenergy have secured leases for offshore wind development in the first lease sale in the Gulf of Maine as well as the first sale for floating offshore wind acreage on the US Atlantic coast. The US Department of Interior said that the auction resulted in two provisional winners on four lease areas and nearly $22m in winning bids. Each company won two leases with Avangrid securing a 400 sq km lease for almost $5m and a 505 sq km lease for just over $6.2m. Both areas are approximately 55 km off the shore of Massachusetts. Invenergy on the other hand paid close to $5m for a 396 sq km lease and almost $6m for a 476 sq km lease. The first one is located some 85 km off Maine while the second one is around 40 km off Massachusetts. The Department of Interior claimed that, together, the leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3m homes with renewable energy. “Today’s lease sale will support the development of floating offshore wind in deepwater sites, and the administration is working through the interagency Floating Offshore Wind Shot to position the US as a leader on these new technologies,” the Department said. The sale resulted in over $5.4m in total bidding credits. These credits represent binding commitments by companies to invest over $2.7m in workforce training and domestic supply chain development, and an additional $2.7m for fisheries compensatory mitigation. However, eight leases were put up for sale with only four finding a bidder. Also, the low average price of bids from 14 prequalified companies can be attributed to the looming political risk of Trump winning the elections and the implications of that on the US offshore wind industry. googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsOffshore Wind United States