Former BOEM Director Amanda Lefton will lead RWE’s offshore wind development effort on the East Coast.
RWE announced the appointment Monday. The move will place her in charge of one of the largest projects of its kind in the United States: Community Offshore Wind, a collaboration with National Grid Ventures that has a potential output of over 3 GW.
Lefton was appointed director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in early 2021, shortly after President Biden’s inauguration. She previously was first assistant secretary for energy and the environment for New York, a role that placed her at the center of that state’s climate protection efforts.
In January 2023, Lefton resigned as BOEM chief to become senior policy director of energy and climate at law firm Foley Hoag. Elizabeth Klein was named BOEM director upon Lefton’s departure.
As measured by installed capacity, RWE is the world’s second-largest offshore wind developer, behind Ørsted. All 19 of the facilities RWE now operates are outside U.S. waters, but it is working to develop wind farms off the east and west coasts of the United States.
In early 2022, RWE and National Grid Ventures successfully bid $1.1 billion for lease area OCS-A 0539, which is south of New York and east of New Jersey in the New York Bight. Expected operation date is 2030 for what the partners now call Community Offshore Wind.
In late 2022, RWE won a BOEM lease 28 miles off the coast of California with a $158 million bid that will allow it to develop up to 1.6 GW of floating wind. It projects completion sometime in the mid-2030s.
Community Offshore Wind is now awaiting word on whether it will be awarded a contract in New York’s 2022 offshore wind solicitation. The partners submitted multiple versions of their plan with a variety of price tags and power output ratings. As specified in the solicitation, they outlined ways they would help New York build an offshore wind industry.
RWE has previously developed onshore wind projects in New York state.
Lefton led BOEM at a critical time for the U.S. offshore wind sector, as President Biden set a 2030 goal of 30 GW of capacity and backed up the vision with policy. Installed capacity in U.S. waters was just 42 MW at that point, however, and there was little onshore infrastructure or domestic supply chain to support a radical expansion.
During her two years at BOEM’s helm, the agency greenlighted the nation’s first two utility-scale offshore wind projects, held three lease auctions, began review of 10 projects and advanced exploration of the Oregon and Central Atlantic coasts, the Gulf of Maine and the Gulf of Mexico for potential offshore wind development.
RWE in a news release Monday lauded Lefton’s stakeholder collaboration and all-of-government approach toward clearing the many obstacles to offshore development. Lefton in turn lauded RWE’s conception-to-completion track record in project development.
When she left BOEM for the private sector in January, the Department of Interior’s chief of staff said: “BOEM is at the epicenter of the Department’s work to create good-paying union jobs in the offshore energy sector, support a reliable domestic supply chain and meet the moment for a clean energy economy. Amanda has been a driving force of this effort, and we are grateful for her vision, commitment and service to this country.”
Sam Eaton, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, made a similar point Monday: “Amanda has successfully created significant momentum for the offshore wind industry in the U.S. Her know-how navigating all levels of government has resulted in the approval and now construction of the nation’s first two offshore wind projects.”
