Offshore Wind Rights Near Carolinas Draw $315 Million (2)

Renewable developers spent $315 million buying the rights to install turbines off the coast of North and South Carolina in a government auction that underscored the allure of offshore wind even when no state mandates require it.

After 18 rounds of bidding Wednesday, a Duke Energy Corp. unit and TotalEnergies Renewables USA LLC were the provisional winners of two wind leases, each spanning about 55,000 acres (22,258 hectares), in Carolina Long Bay. Together, the tracts off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, can hold enough turbines to provide 1.3 gigawatts of generation capacity, enough to power almost 500,000 homes, according to the Interior ...