US announces offshore wind leasing schedule through 2028, finalizes Gulf of Maine area

The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced a schedule for up to 12 potential offshore wind energy lease sales through 2028, in Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and territorial waters.

According to Interior, the new offshore wind leasing plan features the following schedule:

2024 Central Atlantic, Gulf of Maine, Gulf of Mexico, and Oregon 

2025 Gulf of Mexico 

2026 Central Atlantic 

2027 Gulf of Mexico and New York Bight 

2028 California, a U.S. Territory, Gulf of Maine, and Hawaii 

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, within the Interior Department, produced a visual-format schedule showing more detail on the estimated time range for each round of leasing.

To date, BOEM has held 12 offshore wind competitive lease sales resulting in the issuance of at least 26 leases. 

In support of planned leasing activity, BOEM recently finalized its designation of a Wind Energy Area (WEA) in the Gulf of Maine, capable of supporting 32 gigawatts of generation. The Gulf of Maine WEA covers about two million acres offshore Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, ranging from approximately 23 to 92 miles off the coast.

BOEM plans to hold a lease auction for sites within the Gulf of Maine WEA later this year.

Bourne tidal hydrokinetic project obtains FERC pilot project license

U.S. hydropower regulators have issued a pilot project license to the Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative of New England (MRECo) for its proposed Bourne tidal hydrokinetic energy project to be located on the Cape Cod Canal in Massachusetts.

MRECo describes itself as a nonprofit corporation that educates and involves all stakeholders (Academic, industry, governmental/regulatory, and public interest groups) to promote the sustainable development of renewable energy in New England ocean waters.

In 2023, MRECo applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision for an 8-year pilot project license for the proposed Bourne Tidal Hydrokinetic Test Site Project. The 50-kilowatt project would include an existing steel platform (installed in 2017), an existing mounting pole, and a new tidal turbine-generator. According to the FERC order, MRECo plans to test various turbine-generator units at the project, including axial, cross flow, oscillating, conveyor, and Archimedes Screw turbine-generator units, but only one turbine-generator unit will be tested at a time. MRECo estimates that testing for any turbine-generator unit will occur for one to two months at a time, with three to four tests per calendar year.  

Photo from MRECo "Current Projects" website

The facilities will be located within the Army Corps-managed canal, less than a mile north of its southern entrance from Buzzards Bay. According to FERC, about 15,000 commercial vessels up to 825 feet in length use the canal each year. 

FERC issued the license under its hydrokinetic pilot project licensing process, a special procedure FERC uses "to meet the needs of entities, such as MRECo, who are interested in testing new hydropower technologies while minimizing the risk of adverse environmental impacts." FERC has described the goal of this process as "to allow developers to test new hydrokinetic technologies, to determine appropriate sites for these technologies, and to confirm the technology’s environmental and other effects without compromising the Commission’s oversight of the projects or limiting agency and stakeholder input."

As outlined in FERC staff’s 2008 white paper presenting the pilot project licensing process, a pilot project should be (1) small, (2) installed for a short term, (3) located in non-sensitive areas based on the Commission’s review of the record, (4) removable and able to be shut down on short notice, (5) removed, with the site restored, before the end of the license term (unless a new license is granted), and (6) initiated by a draft application in a form sufficient to support environmental analysis.

FERC found that these factors applied to the Bourne tidal project, and granted MRECo a pilot license for "an 8-year license term to allow it sufficient time to validate the efficiency of the project prior to applying for a longer-term license for the platform."

Solar power and the Great American Eclipse of 2024

A total solar eclipse traversed North America on April 8, 2024, on a path from Mexico, across the U.S. from Dallas to northern New England, and into Canada. No total eclipse has covered such a large extent of the U.S. in recent years (a 2017 eclipse was the first in the U.S. in 26 years); meanwhile, an increasing amount of solar photovoltaic power plants have been built. The "Great North American Eclipse" of 2024 thus provided an opportunity to examine how a total solar eclipse affects solar power and the broader grid, using New England as an example.

According to New England's regional grid operator ISO New England, "the April 8 solar eclipse led to a steep and significant decrease in solar energy production, but due to extensive planning by ISO New England operators, the event caused no disruptions to the power system." All of New England experienced at least a partial eclipse where the moon blocked at least 80% of the sun. Parts of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine experienced totality.

During the two hours around the eclipse's peak, ISO-NE reports that regional solar production dropped by as much as 4,000 megawatts. 

Chart from ISO-NE (source)

Most of the drop-off -- about 3,300 to 3,500 MW -- came from small-scale, distributed photovoltaic panels connected directly to distribution systems which ISO-NE says "make up the vast majority of solar resources in New England", while grid-connected solar system production dropped by about 650 MW. The timing of the eclipse, relatively late in the afternoon, meant that only about 1,350 MW of solar production returned to the system after the eclipse passed.

ISO reports that its market yielded negative real-time prices as the eclipse approached, followed by a price spike over $100 as the eclipse passed overhead, and then price moderation toward the day's average value.

ISO-NE reports no power system or reliability disruptions from the eclipse, thanks to the system operator's planning for the eclipse, and operations which dispatched natural gas and hydroelectric generators to make up the solar power blocked by the moon.