The US Department of the Interior (DOI) has reached a settlement agreement with Duke Energy under which the utility will voluntarily terminate its offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area and reinvest USD 129 million (around EUR 113 million) in alternative power generation and grid infrastructure projects in the Carolinas.

Duke Energy’s offshore wind lease area, designated OCS-A 0546, is one of the two areas the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auctioned in Carolina Long Bay in 2022. The other lease, OCS-A 0545, was awarded to TotalEnergies, which agreed to cancel its project earlier this year under an agreement with the federal government.