8 offshore wind leases in Gulf of Maine up for auction next week [Video]

Maine will move closer to staking a claim in offshore wind development when the federal government seeks on Tuesday to auction off eight areas for commercial wind energy leases in the Gulf of Maine.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer lease sites comprising 850,000 acres off Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

If fully developed, the areas have a total potential capacity of approximately 13 gigawatts that could power more than 4.5 million homes, federal officials say.

“Seeing us get to this point where commercial leases are offered to developers is a big step,” said Jack Shapiro, climate and clean energy director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. “For Maine and the region as a whole, floating offshore wind is an indispensable part of clean energy resources we need to replace natural gas.”

Natural gas emits carbon dioxide and its price is volatile; it was costly to consumers when global energy markets were roiled by the pandemic in 2020-21 …