The US Department of the Interior (DOI) has signed a settlement agreement with Duke Energy to voluntarily terminate the company’s offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area.
Under the agreement, Duke Energy will receive USD 129 million for lease OCS-A 0546 and will reinvest an equivalent amount in additional power generation capacity and grid infrastructure projects in the Carolinas.
According to Duke Energy, the reinvestment may include new nuclear and natural gas generation as well as grid upgrades to support reliability, regional growth and lower customer costs.
The lease area, designated OCS-A 0546, was one of two offshore wind leases awarded by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in the Carolina Long Bay auction in 2022. The adjacent lease, OCS-A 0545, was awarded to TotalEnergies, which earlier agreed with the federal government to cancel its project.
Both lease areas are located in the Wilmington East Wind Energy Area (WEA) offshore North Carolina.
The settlement with Duke Energy is the fourth offshore wind lease buyout agreement announced by the Trump Administration this year.
The first was the March agreement with TotalEnergies, covering its Carolina Long Bay and New York Bight offshore wind projects, with reimbursement of USD 928 million. In April, the DOI reached agreements with Ocean Winds-led joint ventures Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind, which agreed to voluntarily terminate their offshore wind leases in exchange for a combined USD 885 million in refunded lease fees.
Earlier this month, the DOI reached an agreement with Invenergy, under which the developer will relinquish four offshore wind leases in exchange for USD 765 million.
With the latest agreement, the total value of offshore wind lease buyout deals announced by the Trump Administration this year is around USD 2.7 billion.
