Interior Dept to auction 122,000 acres offshore North Carolina for wind energy

Staff Writer | January 18, 2017

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Acting Director Walter Cruickshank announced that 122,405 acres offshore Kitty Hawk, North Carolina will be offered in a commercial wind lease sale on March 16, 2017.

Energy BOEM has held six competitive lease sales

The Kitty Hawk lease sale is the latest effort in the Obama Administration’s renewable energy program at the U.S. Department of the Interior, which recently marked the operational launch of the nation’s first offshore wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, and the lease sale for over 79,000 acres offshore New York.

To date, BOEM has held six competitive lease sales, which have generated over $58 million in high bids for more than one million acres in federal waters.

The Kitty Hawk lease 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.

The Final Sale Notice contains relevant information, such as deadlines and milestones for bidders, the area available for leasing, lease provisions and conditions, auction details, criteria for evaluating bids, award procedures and lease execution.

Under the terms of the Final Sale Notice, which will be published in the Federal Register on January 19, the lease area will be auctioned as Lease OCS-A 0508. ■