Virginia offshore wind research lease

The U.S. federal agency responsible for leasing offshore wind sites on the outer continental shelf has executed its first wind energy research lease, giving Virginia's state energy agency the right to pursue the Virginia Offshore Wind Technology Advancement Project (VOWTAP), a 12-megawatt offshore wind test facility to be located in federal ocean waters.

Offshore wind energy offers the potential to generate large amounts of electricity from a renewable resource, but to date no commercial grid-tied U.S. offshore wind projects are operating.  The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is responsible for leasing sites on the outer continental shelf for energy projects, including offshore wind and other renewable energy developments.  BOEM has auctioned off sites for offshore wind projects off several East Coast states, including Virginia, but had not previously issued a research lease.

On March 24, BOEM announced the execution of a wind energy research lease with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME).  Under research lease OCS-A 0497 (35 pages), the Virginia agency proposes to design, develop and demonstrate a grid-connected, 12-megawatt offshore wind test facility on the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of Virginia, in partnership with a local utility affiliated with Dominion Resources, Inc.

The 30-year lease covers approximately 2,135 acres of sea space east of Virginia Beach, adjacent to the Wind Energy Area leased to Virginia Electric and Power Company (dba Dominion Virginia Power) for commercial development since 2013.  The lease describes the project as "a research project to generate energy using wind turbine generators and conduct any associated resource assessment activities, as well as install associated offshore substation platforms, inter-array cables, and subsea export cables."  As a research lease, the Virginia agreement does not include any fees payable from DMME to BOEM "for the purpose of ensuring a fair return for the use of this lease area."

As is standard for BOEM's offshore wind site leases, the lease itself does not give the lessee the right to build or operate an offshore wind project.  Rather, the lease gives the Virginia DMME the exclusive right to submit to BOEM for approval a Site Assessment Plan and a Research Activities Plan, and then to allow a designated operator to conduct whatever activities are described in those plans once they are approved by BOEM. 

In this case, DMME has designated Dominion subsidiary Virginia Electric and Power Company as the lease operator.  Dominion's partnership with DMME on offshore wind dates back at least to 2012, when the U.S. Department of Energy announced funding awards for seven proposed Offshore Wind Advanced Technology Demonstration Projects.  Dominion won one of these 2012 awards, and partnered with DMME and others to establish VOWTAP.  VOWTAP won a second funding award from DOE in 2014 for deployment activities.

Dominion and DMME have already filed a Research Activities Plan for VOWTAP.  With the research lease in hand, the path forward includes approval of that plan and a Site Assessment Plan by BOEM.  If the VOWTAP project is built, the data obtained and lessons learned from this project will be made publicly available and inform the future production of renewable energy within the adjacent commercial Wind Energy Area leased to Dominion.

Federal offshore wind auction held for sites off Massachusetts

Federal ocean energy managers have concluded an auction to lease over 350,000 acres off the Massachusetts coast to prepare for offshore wind development.  Of the four parcels up for bid in today's auction, one was provisionally awarded to RES America Developments, Inc. and another to Offshore MW LLC.  Two other parcels failed to attract any bids.

Onshore wind turbines near the Massachusetts coast.

In today's auction conducted by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), RES America Developments, Inc. provisionally won the rights to Lease OCS-A 0500 (187,523 acres) after two rounds of bidding, with a winning bid of $281,285.  Offshore MW LLC provisionally won the rights to Lease OCS-A 0501 (166,886 acres) after two rounds of bidding, with a winning bid of $166,886.  These winning bids are significantly below those that were required to win previous federal competitive lease sales for offshore wind sites.

While today's lease awards are a step forward for U.S. offshore wind, neither lease awarded today grants the right to construct or operate an offshore wind project.  Rather, these leases have a preliminary term of one year, to allow the lessee time to prepare a Site Assessment Plan describing the installation of meteorological towers and buoys and other activities the lessee plans to perform to assess local wind resources and ocean conditions.  Site Assessment Plans must be submitted to BOEM for review and approval.

Once BOEM approves a Site Assessment Plan, the lessee will then have up to five years in which to prepare and submit to BOEM a Construction and Operations Plan (COP) providing detailed information for the construction and operation of a wind energy project on the lease.  After BOEM receives a Construction and Operations Plan from a lessee, BOEM will conduct an environmental review of and public comment period for the proposed project.  If BOEM approves a Construction and Operations Plan, the lessee will have an operations term of 25 years.

Lease OCS-A 0502 (248,015 acres) and Lease OCS-A 0503 (140,554 acres) did not receive bids in today's auction.  As shown on a BOEM nautical chart of the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area, these lease areas are generally farther from the Massachusetts coast than the areas awarded through today's auction.

BOEM touts its offshore wind leasing program as part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.  The auction held today by BOEM represents the nation’s fourth competitive lease sale for renewable energy sites in federal waters.  Including this auction, competitive lease sales have generated more than $14.5 million in high bids for more than 700,000 acres in federal waters.  Previous auctions covered sites off Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Virginia, and Maryland.  BOEM expects to hold another competitive lease sale offshore the New Jersey coast in 2015.