The US government has announced that California’s first auction of offshore wind construction rights received more than $757 million in winning bids, the majority of which came from European companies. The US Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) auctioned off five lease areas on the state’s Outer Continental Shelf, totaling 73,268 acres. An estimated 4.6 GW of offshore wind energy can be produced by the five leasing areas, which is more than enough to power more than 1.5 million homes. As provisional auction winners, BOEM selected RWE Offshore Wind, California North Floating, Equinor Wind US, Central California Offshore Wind, and Invenergy California Offshore.
RWE Offshore Wind obtained OCS-P 0561, while Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, through its California North Floating subsidiary, acquired OCS-P 0562. The OCS-P 0563 region has been given to Equinor Wind US, a division of the Norwegian energy company Equinor. Ocean Winds’ subsidiary Central California Offshore Wind obtained the OCS-P 0564 lease, while Invenergy California Offshore received the OCS-P 0565 lease. The lease auction, which is part of US President Joe Biden’s plans to have 30 GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030, is the third major offshore wind lease sale in 2022.
In October 2022, the AES Corporation dedicated its Luna Battery Storage (100 MW, 400 MWh) and Lancaster Area Battery Storage (127 MW, 508 MWh) facilities in Lancaster, California. In August and September of 2022, respectively, the battery storage facilities were completed and effectively implemented. As per the statement, these two initiatives make up one of the biggest battery storage facilities in California – and the world.
