December 17, 2018 — The blockbuster auction for offshore wind leases that wrapped up Friday should leave few doubts: The industry has finally arrived in New England.
Three developers backed by major European energy companies paid a record $405 million to gain access to 390,000 acres of federal waters nearly 20 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. These firms will each pay $135 million to the federal government for the rights to build massive windmills in their respective slices of the ocean.
“We are completely blown away by this result,” Walter Cruickshank, acting director of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, told reporters after the auction ended.
Cruickshank was speaking for the agency that oversaw the auction, but he also summed up much of the industry’s reaction.