US Gov’t Drafting Agreements to Pay French Developer Nearly USD 1 Billion to Cancel Offshore Wind Leases – Reports

March 17 (offshoreWIND.biz) The US government is working on settlement agreements that involve the government cancelling TotalEnergies’ Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay offshore wind leases and reimbursing the French energy company USD 928 million (around EUR 806 million) for the financial bids through which it secured the two areas in lease sales during the previous administration, the New York Times reported on 17 March.

According to the report, which cites documents, including copies of the agreements reviewed by the New York Times, the deal with the Trump administration is that TotalEnergies would abandon plans to start building the offshore wind farms and commit to investing in natural gas infrastructure in Texas, and the US Department of the Interior (DOI) would cancel the leases and the Department of Justice (DOJ) would compensate the company for its winning bids.

TotalEnergies entered the US offshore wind market through the acquisition of lease areas in the New York Bight and off the coast of the Carolinas through competitive federal auctions in 2022. The company secured the Attentive Energy area off New York through a joint venture with EnBW for a price of USD 795 million, and in the Carolina Long Bay offshore wind lease sale, in which TotalEnergies was bidding solo, acquired the OCS-A 0545 lease site for USD 160 million.

The Attentive Energy lease in the New York Bight covers a large offshore zone off the coasts of New York and New Jersey. The area spans approximately 132 square miles (around 342 square kilometres) and was planned as a multi-phase project, with the lease area split into separate project sites that have been developed through a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Corio Generation and Rise Light & Power.

The first project in the lease area, Attentive Energy One, was selected in New York’s third offshore wind solicitation round in 2023, before the process was ultimately cancelled due to technical and commercial challenges between stakeholders. In 2024, New Jersey selected the Attentive Energy Two offshore wind project in its third offshore wind solicitation. A Corio, TotalEnergies and Rise Light & Power entered New Jersey’s fourth solicitation, but the state cancelled it at the beginning of 2025, after the US changed administration.

TotalEnergies paused progress on the projects in November 2024, after the US presidential election, citing growing political uncertainty around the sector, but the developer entered Attentive Energy One again in New York’s fifth solicitation round, which the US state officially closed this year with no awards.

The Carolina Long Bay lease area TotalEnergies secured in 2022 is located offshore North Carolina. The site has been described as having the potential to support around 1 GW of installed capacity.