U.S. Offshore Wind Lease Boundary Polygons from BOEM

BOEM's Offshore Wind Lease Outlines contain dissolved polygon boundaries for active commercial, research, and right-of-way wind energy leases in U.S. Outer Continental Shelf waters. The dataset is managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. It was last updated in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial overlap between lease polygons and marine habitat data for environmental impact assessments.
• Calculate total leased area per region using polygon geometry to assess wind energy development capacity.
• Map provisional versus active lease statuses by Lease Number to track project development stages.
• Identify adjacency of commercial lease areas and right-of-way easement sections for infrastructure planning.

Strengths

• Includes all active U.S. offshore wind lease areas, providing complete national coverage.
• Data is updated regularly, with a recorded update in April 2026.
• Polygons are dissolved by Lease Number, creating clean outline boundaries for analysis.

Limitations

• Easement sections are not dissolved into the main lease polygons, requiring separate handling.
• Sample size and specific row/record counts are unknown from the provided information.
• The provisional status of some leases may introduce temporal uncertainty in boundaries.

Provenance

Source

Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), U.S. Department of the Interior.

Collection Method

Lease blocks dissolved by Lease Number to create outline polygons from managed lease areas.

Time Range

Covers active leases as of the last update; specific start date unknown.

Freshness

Updated April 2026.

Geography

U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) waters.