US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has accepted a lease request for a 400MW floating offshore wind farm proposed offshore Oahu, Hawaii.
The lease request accepted by BOEM was submitted by Progression Hawaii Offshore Wind, Inc., part of Oregon-based Progression Energy, for the Progression South Coast of Oahu Project.
BOEM deemed the lease request for the Progression South Coast of Oahu Project complete and confirmed that the company is legally, technically, and financially qualified to pursue an offshore wind energy lease.
BOEM has so far received a total of three unsolicited lease requests for floating wind energy projects off Oahu.
The other two lease requests were submitted by AW Hawaii Wind, LLC, for the 400MW AWH Oahu Northwest Project and the 400MW AWH Oahu South Project.
Typically, the first step after receiving an unsolicited lease request and verifying potential lessee qualifications is to publish a Request for Interest to determine if there is competitive interest in the areas requested.
However, BOEM has determined that since two developers have submitted lease requests offshore Oahu, the next step will be to publish a Call for Information and Nominations in order to initiate the competitive planning and leasing process.
Receipt of an unsolicited lease request by BOEM is the earliest step in a process that includes environmental analysis and active stakeholder engagement.