The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has announced the availability of its draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed 2600MW New England Wind energy project offshore Massachusetts.
Park City, LLC submitted a construction and operation plan (COP) for its proposal to develop a wind energy facility and its associated export cables on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offshore Massachusetts. Park City proposes to develop the lease area in two phases, known as Park City Wind (Phase 1) and Commonwealth Wind (Phase 2), collectively referred to as New England Wind. The proposal includes up to 129 wind turbines and up to five offshore electrical service platforms with a total of five offshore export cables. The project will be located about 20 nautical miles (nm) south of Martha’s Vineyard and about 24 nm southwest of Nantucket. The onshore components of the project will include up to three export cable landfalls in Massachusetts (one for Phase 1 and up to two for Phase 2) and up to three onshore substations: one in Barnstable, Massachusetts, for Phase 1 and up to two in Barnstable or Bristol County, Massachusetts, for Phase 2.
BOEM will use the findings of the EIS to inform its decision on whether to approve the New England Wind COP, and if so, which mitigation measures to require.
Under this Administration, BOEM has initiated the environmental review of ten projects, with more to come. Of these, New England Wind represents the sixth project to reach the DEIS stage of review by BOEM. In addition, the Department of the Interior has approved the nation's first two commercial scale offshore wind projects and has held three offshore wind lease auctions. Other milestones achieved in 2022 include the identification of two final Wind Energy Areas in the Gulf of Mexico and eight draft Wind Energy Areas in the Central Atlantic.