The winners of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) fifth competitive lease sale for renewable energy in federal waters, which offered nearly 344,000 acres offshore New Jersey for potential wind energy development, have been announced.

The provisional winners of the 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.

“We are pleased to see continued commercial interest in the offshore wind industry, as demonstrated by today’s lease sale. With provisional winners for both lease areas, we are optimistic about the promise of a strong renewable energy future offshore New Jersey, as well as for the entire nation,” said BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper. “I look forward to working with the members of the New Jersey Renewable Energy Task Force and the public on future wind energy projects proposed for these leases by RES America Developments Inc. and US Wind Inc.”

Prior to today’s lease sale, BOEM has awarded nine commercial offshore wind leases, including seven through the competitive lease sale process (two in an area offshore Rhode Island-Massachusetts, another two offshore Massachusetts, two offshore Maryland and one offshore Virginia). Today’s announcement builds on Interior’s work to support a sustainable offshore wind program through BOEM.

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