Yesterday, the US Department of Interior announced that it would hold its first-ever competitive auction for offshore wind leases. The auction will take place at the end of July and provide companies with access to two sites situated south of Newport, RI, both of which span the border between Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Combined, the sites are estimated to be capable of hosting an installed capacity of 3.4GW of power. Their actual generation will be based less on the availability and strength of the wind or downtime for maintenance. In general, offshore wind is far steadier than what land-based wind turbines experience, meaning that the new site should get more out of every bit of hardware installed. The tradeoff is that installation and maintenance costs are much higher, so the energy produced by offshore wind is generally more expensive than solar power (in contrast, onshore wind is competitive with coal power).

Nevertheless, the two closest states have renewable energy standards that require that a certain percentage of their electricity comes from sources like wind. And both the Energy and Interior Departments have been anxious to help the technology mature in the US (it has been widely used in Europe).

Interior has identified nine companies qualified to bid in the upcoming auction, which will include both a monetary phase and a phase that considers factors like agreements to sell the power once the site is constructed. The Department of Interior has already completed the environmental review, so there may be a relatively smooth path to construction.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management maintains a website that is tracking the development of the site.