The US' Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has released its draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the 2.6 GW New England Wind project offshore the state of Massachusetts (United States). If approved, it could provide power for more than 900,000 homes.
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 (32 km) south of Martha’s Vineyard and about 24 nm (39 km) 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.
Park City, LLC submitted a construction and operation plan (COP) for its proposal to develop a wind energy plant 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. New England Wind is the sixth project to reach the DEIS stage of review by BOEM.
At the federal level, the United States target 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 15 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035 (only 42 MW were operational at the end of 2021).