A lease for offshore wind development went for a record-breaking bid in February, reports Grist, signaling that investors and developers see potential in offshore wind. When the Biden administration leased almost half a million acres of the Atlantic Ocean for offshore wind development, fourteen companies drove up the bid to a closing price of $4.37 billion. The largest tract went to Bight Wind Withholdings for $1.1 billion.
This per-acre lease price is nine times what companies paid in the last U.S. offshore wind auction. This comes as state and federal policy support for the industry has grown. This latest sale may be a building block toward Biden’s goal of developing enough offshore wind power to supply 10 million homes with energy by 2030.
