The US Department of the Interior (DOI) said on 17 June that it had reached a settlement with Invenergy covering four offshore wind lease areas in the New York Bight, off California’s Central Coast and in the Gulf of Maine.
Under the agreement, Invenergy will relinquish the leases and receive $765 million, approximately EUR 664 million, in reimbursement. The DOI said the capital will instead be directed to natural gas-fired power generation and geothermal energy projects.
The funds are expected to support gas-fired power plants in Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, as well as geothermal developments in the western United States.
The settlement is part of a wider series of offshore wind lease termination agreements announced by the Trump administration as it moves to stop new offshore wind development and shift investment toward conventional power generation.
Since the start of this year, the administration has also announced similar arrangements with TotalEnergies and the developers of the Golden State Wind and Bluepoint Wind projects, led by Ocean Winds.
The four leases covered by the agreement were still in the early stages of development.
In the New York Bight, Invenergy held a lease awarded in BOEM’s 2022 auction. The company had been advancing the site as the Leading Light Wind project with energyRe.
The California lease area is located in the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area. Invenergy secured the site in BOEM’s first US West Coast offshore wind auction in 2022 and later named the project Even Keel Wind.
The remaining two lease areas are in the Gulf of Maine. Invenergy acquired OCS-A 0562 and OCS-A 0567 in BOEM’s 2024 auction, with floating wind technology planned for the sites.
Invenergy said the decision reflects its focus on projects that can be delivered within commercially viable schedules as electricity demand rises.
The latest agreement brings the total value of offshore wind lease buyback deals announced by the Trump administration to nearly $2.6 billion, approximately EUR 2.3 billion.
