Deepwater Wind has won both leases up for grabs in a federal auction for the rights to develop offshore wind power in a 257-square-mile area of waters off Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The Providence company emerged from the nation's first competitive sale of offshore renewable energy leases on Wednesday as the sole winner, with a total bid for the two leases of $3.8 million.
Deepwater beat out Sea Breeze Energy and U.S. Wind for the two leases. Nine companies had met the technical, legal and financial qualifications to participate in the auction, but Deepwater, U.S. Wind and Sea Breeze Energy were the only ones that lodged bids. The other potential bidders included Energy Management, the Boston company planning the 130-turbine Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.
The results were announced in a conference call at 5:20 p.m. by officials from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which oversaw the auction.