A group led by two American companies shelled out $645 million last week for the future development rights of an offshore wind farm off the New Jersey coast.
Invenergy Wind Offshore LLC, which is a partnership led by Chicago-based Invenergy and New York-based energyRe, now owns the rights to 84,000 acres where company officials believe 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy can be harnessed using turbines larger than the Washington Monument.
“We’re very happy where we are, and it’s a huge opportunity for our two American companies to really shine,” energyRe Chairman Jeff Blau said in an interview Thursday.
Despite the Invenergy group’s win, the federal auction proved that European energy giants still dominate the burgeoning offshore wind industry. The other five leases up for auction were grabbed by companies based in Spain, Great Britain, France and Germany. (One of those five does include a New York investment firm.) In total, the six leases raised a whopping $4.4 billion for the federal government.
European energy companies already own most of the 17 leases awarded between 2013 and 2018. Industry experts say those foreign conglomerates have head starts from their decades of experience building wind farms in Europe. Most are former fossil fuel companies that years ago began renewable energy subsidiaries.
What’s at stake is immense, and getting more so. The size of the six ocean parcels awarded in the three-day auction is 762 square miles, which is…
