Avangrid Renewables wins North Carolina offshore wind lease

Portland, Ore. — James P. Torgerson, CEO of AVANGRID, Inc., issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) declaration of Avangrid Renewables as the preliminary winner of an auction for 122,405 acres off the coast of Kitty Hawk, N.C., for development as an offshore wind energy facility.

“We are very excited about this opportunity for Avangrid Renewables to play a leading role in the growing U.S. offshore wind industry, a reliable source of clean energy that has significant job-creation potential in North Carolina and the United States,” Torgerson said. “Avangrid Renewables has a proven track record of clean energy development, with approximately 6.5 gigawatts of wind, solar and other renewable generation facilities in service or under development in 20 U.S. states.

“Between our leading position in the United States, including North Carolina, where we operate a wind farm near Elizabeth City, along with the expertise and experience of our international affiliate, Iberdrola Group, in developing offshore wind in Europe, we felt we were well positioned to secure this bid. We are confident in our ability to leverage those channels, along with our supply chain knowledge and our development and transmission expertise, in order to deliver a competitively priced product to our eventual customers.

“We salute the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the Department of the Interior for the professional manner in which they went about the bidding process, reflected by the initial large number of parties that pre-qualified to bid. We are excited to undertake the enormous task before us in bringing this project to fruition, and confident in its completion.”