The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced a series of public meetings following its Proposed Sale Notice (PSN) for the first offshore wind energy auction in the Gulf of Maine. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is opening a 60-day public comment period that will close on July 1, 2024, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

The public meetings follow the April 30 announcement from the Biden Administration that it would auction off the rights to build industrial-scale wind turbine arrays in the Gulf of Maine.

“In another step by the Biden-Harris administration to support the growing momentum across America for a clean energy economy, the Department of the Interior (DOI) today announced two proposals for offshore wind energy auctions off the coast of Oregon and in the Gulf of Maine,” the Department of Interior said in a press release.

“The two sales proposed by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have the potential to generate more than 18 gigawatts of offshore wind energy, enough to power more than six million homes,” the DOI claimed.