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ARTICLE · 14 DECEMBER 2022

California's First Offshore Wind Auction Finalized – Key Takeaways

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The dust has settled on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) first west coast auction for federal offshore wind lease areas.

United StatesEnergy and Natural Resources
Thomas Kaufman
Thomas Kaufman
Joshua Sturtevant
Joshua Sturtevant
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The dust has settled on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) first west coast auction for federal offshore wind lease areas. The California auction for the Morro Bay and Humboldt Call Areas brought an aggregate $757,100,000 to federal coffers at a $2,028 per acre value (with variances between the areas discussed below). This per acre value is well below the results of the other BOEM auctions of 2022, New York Bight (approximately $9,000 per acre, the highwater mark in the U.S.) and Carolina Long Bay (approximately $2,800 per acre). The final figure places the final result firmly within, but on the low end of, BOEM's pre-auction estimate of $400M – $1.6B.

We previously explored auction rules, multi-factor bidding, potential factors impacting bidder behavior and permitting issues. Here, we provide initial takeaways from the auction results.

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