A major milestone was reached in the development of offshore wind energy off North Carolina’s coast. The Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it will propose a lease sale of 127,865 acres in the Carolina Long Bay off the Wilmington coastline.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will publish a Proposed Sale Notice in the Federal Register on Nov. 1, which will kick off a 60-day comment period. The BOEM is requesting public input on potentially dividing the proposed lease area into as many as three lease areas, according to the Proposed Sale Notice.
Prospective bidders have until Jan. 3 to submit qualification materials. Any plans by a lessee would be subject to environmental, technical and public reviews before they are authorized, according to a news release.
The release said the proposed lease area has the potential to unlock more than 1.5 Gigawatts of offshore wind energy and power more than 500,000 homes. This proposal is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, according to the release.
For more information, visit the BOEM’s Carolina Long Bay website.
