California first offshore wind auction surpasses $500 million

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By Nichola Groom

(Reuters) - The first ever auction of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California was in its second day on Wednesday, with high bids topping half a billion dollars.

The Biden administration's sale is a major milestone in its goal of putting turbines along every U.S. coastline, and a critical test of developer appetite for investment in floating wind turbines, an emerging technology necessary in locations where the ocean floor is too deep for fixed equipment.

"America has become the destination to invest in offshore wind, whether it's conventional or this next generation set of technologies," White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said in an interview, calling floating wind farms "a unique opportunity for us to position for even greater leadership as this industry scales up globally."

There is currently about 100 megawatts of floating wind capacity installed in the world, compared with 50 gigawatts (GW) for conventional offshore wind, Zaidi noted.

Earlier this year, the administration said it aimed to have 15 GW of floating wind capacity along its coastlines by 2035, enough to power about 5 million homes. That goal is aligned with the government's other target for permitting 30 GW of total offshore wind by 2030 -- a cornerstone of President Joe Biden's agenda to fight climate change and create jobs.

The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is auctioning five lease areas equal to a combined 373,267 acres (151,056 hectares) off the state's north and central coasts. Previous federal offshore wind auctions have all been for leases in shallower waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

After 27 rounds of bidding, high bids totaled a combined $582.1 million. High bids on individual leases ranged between $95.3 million and $148.8 million, according to live auction results on the BOEM web site.

The identities of the bidders are not disclosed during the auction, but 43 companies had been approved to participate.

They include established offshore wind players like Avangrid (NYSE:AGR) Inc, Orsted (OTC:DOGEF) and Equinor, which are all developing projects on the U.S. East Coast, as well as potential new entrants, including Swedish floating wind developer Hexicon and Macquarie unit Corio.