The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has identified 14 companies as legally, technically and financially qualified to participate in the upcoming commercial wind lease sale of 79,350 acres offshore New York, including industry leaders such as DONG Energy, innogy and Iberdrola’s Avangrid Renewables.
The lease sale has also attracted EDF Renewable Development, Statoil Wind US, wpd offshore Alpha, Deepwater Wind Hudson Canyon, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), Fishermen’s Energy, Sea Breeze Energy, CI-II NY Inc, Energy Management, Inc, Convalt Energy, and Clean Power Northeast Development.
BOEM will hold an online monetary auction of the New York Wind Energy Area on 15 December, at 8:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST).
The area starts approximately 11.5 nautical miles (nm) from Jones Beach, NY. From its western edge, the area extends approximately 24 nm southeast at its longest portion. The lease area consists of five full Outer Continental Shelf blocks and 143 sub-blocks.
After reviewing comments received on the Environmental Assessment (EA), BOEM removed about 1,780 acres from the lease area due to environmental concerns regarding a seafloor feature known as the Cholera Bank. In a comment letter, the National Marine Fisheries Service identified the Cholera Bank feature as a sensitive habitat to be avoided for the placement of structures. As a result of this removal, the revised lease area will be approximately two percent smaller than the lease area considered in the Proposed Sale Notice (PSN).
In response to concerns raised by commercial fishing interests, BOEM has also included a lease requirement for the lessee to develop a publicly available fisheries communications plan and work with a fisheries liaison to facilitate communication with the fishing industry.
The Final Sale Notice also contains additional provisions that respond to public comments. For instance, BOEM will consider monetary and non-monetary factors (i.e., 10 percent credit for government authorities) in determining the winner. The Final Sale Notice contains more information about these requirements and other relevant sale items, such as deadlines and milestones for bidders, the area available for leasing, lease provisions and conditions, auction details, criteria for evaluating bids, award procedures and lease execution.
Under the terms of the Final Sale Notice, which will be published in the Federal Register on 31 October, the lease area will be auctioned as Lease OCS-A 0512. Concurrently, BOEM will release a revised environmental assessment (EA) for commercial wind lease issuance and related activities within the area.
As a result of the analysis in the revised EA, BOEM issued a Finding of No Significant Impact, which concluded that reasonably foreseeable environmental effects associated with the issuance of the commercial wind lease and related activities would not significantly impact the environment.