Hecate Energy seeks offshore wind lease off the Texas coast

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had good news and not so good news to report on Gulf of Mexico offshore wind last week. The good news: the agency has received an unsolicited lease request from Hecate Energy Gulf Wind LLC (Hecate Energy) to acquire commercial wind energy lease(s) on two areas located off the coast of southeast Texas. The not so good news is that while BOEM received 25 comments to its proposed notice of sale to hold a second Gulf offshore wind lease sale, only one company expressing an interest in participating. As a result, BOEM is cancelling that sale due to a lack of competitive interest, but may decide to move forward with a lease sale at a future time, based on industry interest.

In response to Hecate’s lease request, BOEM is seeking information regarding whether competitive interest exists in the areas included in Hecate Energy’s request.

The two U.S. Gulf areas that Hecate is interested in had been previously identified by BOEM as potential Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) in 2021. WEA Option C totals 74,113 acres, and WEA Option D totals 68,239 acres, for a total of 142,352 acres.

As required by the OCS Lands Act, BOEM is issuing a Request for Competitive Interest (RFCI) seeking comments and specific input regarding whether there is competitive interest in commercial offshore wind energy development in the areas requested by Hecate Energy. The RFCI will be published in the Federal Register on July 29, 2024.

If BOEM receives one or more indications of interest in acquiring a commercial wind lease from qualified entities, the agency may decide to move forward with a competitive lease sale. If BOEM does not receive competing indications of interest from qualified companies, it may move forward with a noncompetitive lease issuance to Hecate Energy.

The areas contained in Hecate Energy’s unsolicited lease request were identified as part of that effort and are different than the areas included in BOEM’s Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) for a second Gulf of Mexico offshore wind lease sale, published on March 21, 2024.

Delivering wind energy the U.S. Gulf will require the use of floating wind technology. This is still in its infancy which is likely one reason response to BOEM’s first Gulf wind lease sale in August 2023 was lackluster.

While Chicago-headquartered Hecate Energy is a top-ten developer of North American solar and wind generation facilities and energy storage solutions it has not yet ventured into offshore wind. However, it has a number of solar projects in Texas and is 40% owned by Spanish energy major Repsol which, since 2022, has been in a JV with Ørsted that is looking at floating wind opportunities offshore Span.