The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management today announced that it is seeking requests for competitive interest and public comments by Thursday, Sept. 12 on commercial leasing for wind energy development on ~142,000 acres of federal waters offshore southeast Texas.
The request follows an unsolicited application from Hecate Energy for two commercial wind energy leases in this area, with the company seeking to generate up to 2 gigawatts of power through the deployment of up to 133 fixed-bottom wind turbine generators. Hecate Energy proposes multiple potential uses for the wind energy, including grid interconnection, sale in power purchase agreements to private offtakers, or use for Wind-to-X technologies through which offshore wind energy is used to produce another energy resource.
BOEM Gulf of Mexico Regional Director Dr. James Kendall said that the Gulf of Mexico region “benefits from great offshore wind resources and existing energy infrastructure,” adding that “interest from industry leaders…demonstrates the commercial potential in the region” and that “[a]s we continue to explore these opportunities, we will ensure that any potential development is done in a way that avoids, reduces, or mitigates potential impacts to ocean users and the environment.”
