The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has completed its environmental review of the proposed New England Wind project offshore Massachusetts. The BOEM estimates the proposed project, previously known as Vineyard Wind South, would generate up to 2,600 MW of electricity, enough to power more than 900,000 homes.
“Diverse public input was essential to BOEM’s careful and thorough analysis of the environmental impact of the proposed New England Wind project,” said BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein. “This document demonstrates the administration’s steady progress towards attaining clean energy goals that will better the lives of Americans now and in the future.”
Since the start of the Biden/Harris administration, the Department of the Interior has approved the nation’s first six commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects. BOEM has held four offshore wind lease auctions, which have brought in almost $5.5 billion in high bids, including a record-breaking sale offshore New York and New Jersey and the first-ever sales offshore the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts. BOEM has also advanced the process to explore additional opportunities for offshore wind energy development in the Gulf of Maine, Gulf of Mexico, and offshore Oregon and the Central Atlantic coast.
The New England Wind project is about 20 nautical miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., and about 24 nautical miles southwest of Nantucket, Mass. Park City Wind submitted a two-phased project plan that includes up to 129 wind turbine generators, with up to five offshore export cables that would transmit electricity to onshore transmission systems in the Town of Barnstable and Bristol County, Mass.
The final environmental impact (EIS) statement analyzes the potential environmental impacts of the activities laid out in the New England Wind project’s construction and operations plan and reasonable alternatives. The final EIS is available on BOEM’s website.
BOEM plans to issue a record of decision on whether to approve the project no earlier than April 2024. If the project is approved, the record of decision will also identify any conditions of approval.