USUS BOEM Carolina Long Bay ATLW-9 lease sale
Also known as: ATLW-9, Atlantic Wind Lease Sale 9, BOEM Carolina Long Bay lease sale, Carolina Long Bay offshore wind lease sale, US BOEM Carolina Long Bay ATLW-9
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First BOEM multiple-factor offshore wind lease sale. Opened under the Biden 30 GW by 2030 target three months after NY Bight, with a smaller two-lease Carolinas market and materially lower aggregate bids than NY Bight.
16 → 2
Ascending · multi-round
federal OCS commercial renewable-energy lease
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USD 155m–160mm
39 years
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Leaseholder requirement stated in the FSN; no more specific FSN consequence extracted here.
Award of a BOEM commercial offshore wind lease for either OCS-A 0545 or OCS-A 0546 in the Carolina Long Bay Area. The lease carries the standard federal structure of preliminary term, site assessment term, and operations term, and includes the ability to obtain project easements under 30 C.F.R. part 585 as needed for full enjoyment of the lease.
→ Leaseholder requirement stated in the FSN; no more specific FSN consequence extracted here.
→ Required to continue into the operations term; no further specific FSN consequence extracted here.
Winning cash bonus bid, payable as the winning bid less the bid deposit.
Trigger: Within 10 business days after receiving the lease copies for execution.
Annual lease rent of $3 per acre, with rent applying only to undeveloped acreage once commercial operations begin.
USD 3 USD per acre per year
Trigger: First year's rent due within 45 calendar days of receiving the lease for execution; thereafter on each Lease Anniversary.
Duration: 39 years
Anchor: until event
Annual project easement rent of $5 per acre, subject to a $450 annual minimum, for any project easement associated with the lease.
USD 5 USD per acre per year
Trigger: Commences when BOEM approves the COP (or modification) describing the project easement and the operations term begins.
Annual operating fee equal to 2% of the imputed wholesale market value of projected annual electric power production.
USD 0.02 share of imputed wholesale market value of projected annual electric power production
Trigger: Initial fee due within 45 days of commencement of commercial operations; thereafter on or before the Lease Anniversary.
Duration: 33 years
Anchor: until event
Online ascending multi-round auction over cash bonus bids for two lease areas. BOEM posts an asking price for each lease area at the start of each round; bidders submit live bids at the asking price and, after round 1, may submit intra-round exit bids between the prior and current asking prices. A separate 20% non-monetary bidding credit may increase a qualified bidder's effective bid value in winner determination, but the competitive bid itself remains the cash bonus bid.
Reserve: USD 50 USD per acre — Minimum bid was $50.00 per acre. This implied minimum total bids of $2,746,850 for OCS-A 0545 and $2,757,700 for OCS-A 0546.
Stop: BOEM increases asking prices until no more than one active bidder per lease area remains; the auction continues as long as at least one lease area has two or more live bids.
Selection: In each round, bidders submit live bids at the asking price for eligible lease area combinations; after round 1 they may also submit intra-round bids between the prior and current asking prices for the same lease area combination as their prior live bid.
Disclosure: BOEM posts previous-round live-bid counts by lease area and the next round's asking prices during the recess between rounds.
BOEM legal, technical, and financial qualification to hold a commercial wind lease under 30 CFR 585.106 and 585.107; 16 named entities were found eligible to participate.
Each bidder had to submit a Bidder's Financial Form (BFF) to BOEM by 2022-04-11, using an originally executed paper copy signed by an authorised representative and containing the required self-certification.
Each bidder had to submit a bid deposit by 2022-04-25. A $2,000,000 deposit gave eligibility to bid on one lease area; $4,000,000 gave eligibility to bid on two lease areas.
Affiliated eligible bidders were not permitted to compete against each other in the lease sale and had to determine before auction start which affiliated bidder, if any, would participate.
Optional binary qualification for the 20% non-monetary bidding credit. A bidder seeking the credit had to elect it on the BFF and submit a conceptual strategy before the bid-deposit deadline; BOEM reviewed qualification before the mock auction. Failure to qualify did not bar auction participation, only use of the credit.
Method: quantitative formula
Unit: USD lump sum
Method: bid discount on binding commitment
Unit: percent uplift to effective bid value
- stage 1 tie by stage 2 value — If two or more feasible combinations tie in Stage 1 on maximised total effective bid value, BOEM carries each tied combination into the Stage 2 problem and selects the combination that produces the highest Stage 2 value.
- pseudorandom number selection — If tied combinations remain after the Stage 2 comparison in Stage 1, or if two or more combinations tie in Stage 2 on maximised total effective bid value, the auction system selects one tied combination using pseudorandom numbers.
No revenue-support instrument. Revenue comes from downstream offtake contracts, merchant markets, or bilateral PPAs.
Legal basis: Federal offshore wind leasing policy framework under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act / Energy Policy Act 2005.
Legal basis: 43 U.S.C. 1337(p); 30 CFR 585.211 and 585.216.
Legal basis: Receives operating fee payments under the federal offshore wind lease payment framework.
effective_bid_value = cash_bid x 1.20 for a credit-qualified bidder; the bidder must contribute at least 80% of the credit value toward qualifying workforce training or domestic supply chain development programmes before the first Facility Design Report submission.
State-level OREC solicitations paired commercially with the federal lease sale; not legally required to complete the lease award but important for commercial viability.
| Winner | Site/Lot | Category | Capacity | Price | Total Value | Delivery | Term | Mechanism | Signed | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TotalEnergies Renewables USA LLC | OCS-A 0545 | commercial lease area 54937 acres | — | USD 160,000,000m | 160,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |
| Duke Energy Renewables Wind LLC | OCS-A 0546 | commercial lease area 55154 acres | — | USD 155,000,000m | 155,000,000 | — | — | auction clearing | — | — |