California offshore wind auction bids top $460 mln on day two

Hexicon AB

07/12/2022 15:49

Dec 7 (Reuters) - The first ever auction of offshore
wind development rights off the coast of California entered its
second day on Wednesday, with high bids topping $460 million.
    The Biden administration's sale is a major milestone in the
its goal to put turbines along every U.S. coastline and a
critical test of developer appetite for investment in floating
wind turbines, an emerging technology necessary in locations
where the ocean floor is too deep for fixed equipment. 
    The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management
(BOEM) is auctioning five lease areas equal to a combined
373,267 acres (151,056 hectares) off the state's north and
central coasts. Previous federal offshore wind auctions have all
been for leases in shallower waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
    After 22 rounds of bidding, high bids totaled a combined
$462.1 million. Two leases off the central coast had commanded
high bids of more than $100 million, with the remaining leases
attracting high bids in a range of $62.7 million to $98.8
million, according to live auction results on the BOEM web site.
    The identities of the bidders are not disclosed during the
auction, but 43 companies had been approved to participate.
    They include established offshore wind players like Avangrid
Inc  AGR.N , Orsted  ORSTED.CO  and Equinor  EQNR.OL , which are
all developing projects on the U.S. East Coast, as well as
potential new entrants including Swedish floating wind developer
Hexicon  HEXI.ST  and Macquarie  MQG.AX  unit Corio.    
 (Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Alexander Smith)
 ((nichola.groom@thomsonreuters.com;))