The U.S. will hold its next offshore wind lease auction on May 11 for the rights to develop two areas offshore the Carolinas before a moratorium on offshore wind leases signed by former President Donald Trump is set to take effect.

Carolina Long Bay offshore wind lease areas (Source: BOEM)

The timing of the Carolina Long offshore wind energy auction is intentional: Beginning July 1, a 10-year moratorium signed by former President Donald Trump will ban offshore wind leasing in the area stretching from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico, ending at the Florida Keys.

BOEM issued the Final Sale Notice (FSN) for the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area on March 25. Qualified offshore wind developers can bid on the rights to develop one or both of the lease areas.

As part of the FSN, BOEM is offering 20% credit to bidders that invest in programs to advance U.S. offshore wind energy workforce development and supply chain development. The Department of Energy expects that offshore wind development in the U.S. could create 43,000 jobs by 2030 to support the Biden administration's goal of developing 30 GW of offshore wind.

"The Biden-Harris administration is committed to supporting a robust clean energy economy, and the upcoming Carolina Long Bay offshore wind energy auction provides yet another excellent opportunity to strengthen the clean energy industry while creating good-paying union jobs,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland.

BOEM announced 16 companies that are pre-approved to bid on the Carolina Long Bay offshore wind leases.

The companies are 547 Energy, Arevia Power, Avangrid Renewables, bp, Invenergy, Carolina Offshore Wind, Duke Energy, EDF Renewables, JERA Renewables, Masdar Offshore Wind, MRP Offshore Wind Farm, Ørsted, Ocean Winds, RWE, Shell, and TotalEnergies.

The National Ocean Industries Association and the Consumer Energy Alliance both called on Congress to pass legislation revoking the Trump-era ban on offshore wind leases.

NOIA President Erik Milito said overturning the moratorium is "non-controversial," and said that language in the America Competes Act and Build Back Better Act would have allowed offshore wind leasing to continue.

"Congressional leaders should continue their bipartisan work in passing legislation that overturns the moratorium and allows for additional future lease sales," Milito said.

The Carolina Long Bay offshore wind lease auction follows the record-setting New York Bight auction that generated a total $4.37 billion in winning bids.

The expected installed capacity for the 488,000 acres within New York Bight is expected to be between 5.6 GW and 7 GW, enough to power 2 million homes. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) said capacity could be even higher depending on development plans.

New York Bight was the Biden administration’s first offshore wind lease auction and the first for the U.S. since 2018. The last auction, for development rights off Massachusetts, set the previous record for an individual lease sale at $135.1 million and an overall auction total of $405 million.

The $4.37 billion secured for the New York Bight auction is “more than three times the revenue received from all U.S. offshore oil and gas lease auctions over the past five years,” according to a report by Reuters.

Several of the winning bidders from New York Bight are expected to participate in the Carolina Long Bay lease auction, as well.

The Northern and Central California lease auction is expected to follow the Carolina Long Bay auction this fall.