By GOSIA WOZNIASKA/The Oregonian/OregonLive
Five companies will be eligible to bid in Oregon’s first offshore wind energy lease sale to be held in mid-October, according to a federal document released last week.
The document, published by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is the final step before the auction takes place Oct. 15.
Eligible companies will bid on two offshore areas totaling nearly 195,000 acres where they can build floating wind turbines. The Coos Bay lease area consists of 61,203 acres and is about 32 miles from shore and the Brookings lease area is 133,792 acres and around 18 miles from shore.
The auction is part of the Biden administration’s aggressive development of offshore wind on both coasts, which the federal government deems critical to the country’s clean energy transition.
In Oregon, offshore wind development has faced stark opposition from coastal communities, the state’s fishing industry and local tribes. In November, voters in two coastal counties will be asked whether their local officials should oppose offshore wind. A
Both Oregon senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, came out in opposition to the auction last week.
“By rushing this leasing process, BOEM’s actions undermine state-led efforts to build the necessary consensus among coastal communities, fishermen, conservation groups, and Tribes,” Merkeley said in a statement. “BOEM should not accept bids off the coast of Oregon until the state can facilitate a robust process with significant stakeholder engagement.”
Oregon’s auction will be only the second offshore wind energy sale on the West Coast, after California’s auction was held in December 2022. Interest in Oregon’s lease sale is relatively small in comparison. In California, more than 40 companies qualified to bid on five offshore wind leases.
The companies eligible to bid in Oregon are:
- Avangrid Renewables: The company co-owns Vineyard Wind, an active offshore wind project off the coast of Nantucket in Massachusetts where a massive turbine blade broke apart in mid-July, sending fiberglass debris into surrounding ocean waters. The company said a manufacturing error caused the blade to detach.
- BlueFloat Energy: The company is developing offshore wind power projects in multiple locations worldwide, including off the coast of Scotland, Italy, Spain, Australia and Colombia. It’s also a key player in the upcoming floating wind demonstration project off the coast of Taiwan, which will involve the installation of up to 12 floating platforms.
- Ocean Winds: The Madrid-based company currently has more than a dozen offshore wind projects in 8 countries. In the U.S., it co-owns SouthCoast Wind Energy – formerly Mayflower Wind – an offshore wind energy project in development just south of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. It’s also developing a wind project off the coast of New Jersey and New York. In December 2022, Ocean Winds won one of the leases to build offshore wind turbines in the Morro Bay area off the central coast of California.
- Mainstream Renewable Power: The company is developing offshore wind projects in Norway, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Australia. It developed the world’s largest offshore wind farm in operation at Hornsea, off the coast of England that has since been sold to Orsted. In addition to offshore wind, Mainstream Renewable also develops onshore wind, solar, green hydrogen and other renewable projects.
- South Coast Energy: Little is known about this developer. In a recent comment submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, it called itself “a renewable energy investment and development company that has experience working in Oregon.” South Coast also said its affiliates “have already invested millions of dollars to advance interconnection and transmission on Bonneville Power Administration’s grid system on the Oregon coast to support onshoring energy generated by offshore wind.”
Typically, not all companies that are eligible bid in auctions, said Bureau of Ocean Energy Management spokesperson John Romero. To bid, they must file a financial form by mid-September and submit a $2 million bid deposit prior to the auction.
Romero said the auction – held entirely online – will last one to two days.
Once the auction is held, winning developers will conduct surveying and research work for up to five years before they submit a construction and operations plan to build the offshore wind turbines. Such plans, if submitted, would be subject to additional environmental, technical and public reviews.
— Gosia Wozniacka covers environmental justice, climate change, the clean energy transition and other environmental issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her at gwozniacka@oregonian.com or 971-421-3154.