Renexia wins U.S. offshore wind lease

The Italian renewable energy developer Renexia SpA has announced that it will pay US$8.7 million for two leases off the Maryland coast, USA, to develop wind farms.

The lessee will have an operations term of 25 years. Renexia’s US Wind Inc. unit submitted the winning bid in round 19 of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auction. When fully built, this wind energy area could generate enough energy to power about 300,000 homes (about 675 MW).

In addition to US Wind Inc., the following companies participated in the auction: Green Sail Energy LLC and SCS Maryland Energy LLC.

BOEM Acting Director Cruickshank stated:

We’re pleased to see such strong commercial interest in today’s auction. We will continue to work closely with the Task Force members and the public on any future wind energy projects proposed for these leases by US Wind Inc.

The Maryland Wind Energy Area is located, at its closest point, about 10 nautical miles offshore Ocean City, Md., and has the potential to support between 850 and 1450 megawatts of commercial wind generation, according to Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The sites have a total of almost 80,000 acres (32,370 hectares). BOEM auctioned the Maryland Wind Energy Area as two leases, referred to as the North Lease Area (32,737 acres) and the South Lease Area (46,970 acres).

This is part of the President Obama’s comprehensive Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, develop domestic clean energy resources and cut carbon pollution.

BOEM has awarded five commercial wind energy leases off the Atlantic coast: two noncompetitively issued leases (one for the proposed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound offshore Massachusetts and one offshore Delaware); and three competitively-issued leases (two offshore Rhode Island-Massachusetts and another offshore Virginia). The competitive lease sales generated over US$5 million in winning bids for more than 277,500 acres in federal waters. BOEM is expected to hold additional competitive auctions for Wind Energy Areas offshore Massachusetts and New Jersey in the coming year.