The U.S. Department of the Interior has concluded the first-ever auction dedicated to offshore wind energy lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico region, yielding a remarkably high bid of $5.6 million for the Lake Charles lease area, while the other two areas did not receive any bids.

RWE Offshore U.S. Gulf, a subsidiary of the Gernmany-based power producer RWE, secured the rights to the Lake Charles Lease Area, with a potential of around 1.24 GW of offshore wind energy capacity, supplying clean power to approximately 435,400 households.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) lease auction presented two offshore zones near Galveston, Texas – one spanning 102,480 acres and the other encompassing 96,786 acres. Additionally, a third area of 102,480 acres, situated off Lake Charles, Louisiana, was included.

The two lease areas adjacent to Galveston failed to attract any bids during the current offering.

The Department of the Interior had announced the date for the offshore wind lease sale auction in the Gulf of Mexico in July this year. The move aimed to accelerate the deployment of 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030, paving the way for a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035.

Commenting on the auction, Elizabeth Klein, Director of BOEM, said, “The lease sale represents an important milestone for the Gulf of Mexico region — and our nation — to transition to a clean energy future. The Lake Charles Lease Area will have the potential to generate enough electricity to power about 435,400 homes and create hundreds of jobs.”

RWE Offshore U.S. Gulf has earned bidding credits, resulting in over $860,000 in investments for workforce training and the domestic supply chain and another $430,000 for fisheries compensatory mitigation.

The Department of the Interior has so far conducted four lease auctions for offshore wind, with a groundbreaking sale off the coast of New York and the inaugural auctions in the Pacific and Gulf coasts.

It has also commenced the environmental assessment for ten offshore wind projects and progressed the procedures for investigating additional wind energy areas located in Oregon, the Gulf of Maine, and the Central Atlantic.

The Department has embarked on refining its strategy concerning offshore wind development, aiming to encourage projects constructed by labor unions and foster a domestic supply chain.

In March this year, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) had released its Offshore Wind Energy Strategy, which targets deploying 30 GW of offshore wind projects by 2030 while spurring $12 billion per year in direct private investment.