1st U.S. Floating Offshore Wind Auction Nets $757 Million Off West Coast
December 7, 2022 4:30PM PST
Hywind Scotland, the world’s first commercial wind farm using floating wind turbines, is visible off the coast of Scotland in August 2017. Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022, marks the first-ever U.S. auction for leases to develop commercial-scale floating wind farms in the deep waters off the West Coast. (Woldcam/Equinor via AP)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The first-ever U.S. auction of leases to develop commercial-scale floating wind farms in the deep waters off the West Coast raised $757 million in bids, from mostly European companies.
The auction offered two adjoining lease areas in northern California and three in central California that have the potential to generate 4.5 gigawatts of energy, enough for 1.5 million homes.
The auction garnered less than the $4.4 billion from an auction for traditional, fixed wind power off the East Coast earlier this year.
Industry experts say that’s due to uncertainties about transmission infrastructure in the more rural area and the complex technology of floating turbines.
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