The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) signed Avangrid’s offshore wind lease for the 122,405-acre Kitty Hawk site off North Carolina on 10 October. The lease will go into effect on 1 November 2017.
Avangrid Renewables, Iberdrola’s U.S. renewable energy arm, won the lease at a competitive sale held on 16 March by placing a winning bid of USD 9,066,650 and beating three other bidders: Wind Future LLC, Statoil Wind US LLC, and wpd offshore Alpha LLC.
“Executing this lease with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) not only begins the formal process of studying these 122,000 acres in more detail, it means building long-term local and regional partnerships as we explore the opportunity to develop reliable, homegrown, clean energy using just the ocean breezes as fuel,” Laura Beane , CEO & President of Avangrid Renewables, said in a statement.
“Even at this very early stage, we have a lot of work to do as we seek to better comprehend a number of variables that will inform our understanding of the wind farm development. That process will take time, is highly technical, and will involve many stakeholders, but we are confident in our ability to leverage our experience in order to deliver a competitively priced product to our eventual customers,” Laura Beane explained.
Kitty Hawk is the first offshore wind lease area to be secured off North Carolina. The area begins about 24 nautical miles from shore and extends 25.7 nautical miles in a general southeast direction. Its seaward extent ranges from 13.5 nautical miles in the north to .6 of a nautical mile in the south.
“As the first company to bring wind energy to North Carolina, and with a track record of developing and operating renewable wind and solar plants from coast to coast, we’re excited to extend that expertise into the waters off North Carolina. We’ll bring to bear the substantial experience of our majority shareholder, Iberdrola Group, who develops, builds, and operates offshore wind in Europe. Now we get to work undertaking an enormous task in bringing this project to fruition, but confident in its completion,” Laura Beane said.
According to the procedure information available, to finalise the lease after the auction had been completed, the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission needed to carry out a review of the lease sale and Avangrid had been required to pay the winning bid and provide financial assurance to BOEM.
The lease will now have a preliminary term of one year, followed by a five-year site assessment term.
After BOEM’s approval of the Site Assessment Plan (SAP), Avangrid will work towards submitting the Construction and Operations Plan (COP), which will provide a detailed proposal for the construction and operation of the project within the lease area.
If BOEM approves the COP, Avangrid will then have 25 years to construct and operate the project.
Offshore WIND Staff