Interior Department Auctions 344,000 Acres Offshore New Jersey for Wind Energy Development

Press Release

As part of President Obama's comprehensive Climate Action Plan to create American jobs, develop domestic clean energy resources and cut carbon pollution, the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) today held the nation's fifth competitive lease sale for renewable energy in federal waters, which offered nearly 344,000 acres offshore New Jersey for potential wind energy development.

The provisional winners of today's lease sale are RES America Developments Inc., which bid $880,715 for lease area OCS-A 0498 (160,480 acres), and US Wind Inc., which bid $1,006,240 for OCS-A 0499 (183,353 acres). Fishermen's Energy LLC also participated in the lease sale.

According to an analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, if fully developed, the area leased could support about 3,400 megawatts of commercial wind generation, enough electricity to power about 1.2 million homes.

"Today's auction underscores the emerging market demand for renewable energy and marks another major step in standing up a sustainable offshore wind program for Atlantic coast communities," said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. "Through extensive outreach and public engagement, we reduced potential use conflicts while moving the country closer to harnessing the enormous potential of wind energy along the Atlantic coast."

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