January 29, 2015

On January 29, the Department of the Interior (DOI) held the largest sale of federal waters for offshore wind development with 742,000 acres open for bidding. Two companies, Offshore MW LLC and RES America Inc., bought a total of 354,000 acres of land near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts for a price tag of $448,000 dollars. Though the sale nearly doubles the area leased by DOI for renewable energy development, two additional lease tracts available for sale received no bids, leaving leases on just over half the area offered unsold.

Earlier in January, two utilities terminated their agreements to purchase power from Cape Wind, the nation’s first-ever offshore wind farm located off the coast of Massachusetts, after it failed to reach a financial milestone. On January 21, Cape Wind was suspended from participating in New England’s wholesale energy markets. ISO New England, the regional transmission organization responsible for moving electricity over Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, did not give a concrete reason behind Cape Wind’s suspension.

Source: Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, E&E News

Updated 2/11/15