US BOEM starts environmental review of a 1.5 GW offshore wind project

The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Construction and Operations Plan (COP) of the proposed 1.5 GW Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Project 1. The Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, a 50:50 joint venture between Shell New Energies US and EDF Renewables, submitted its proposal for the development of the lease area OCS-A 0549, located at 14 km from the US state of New Jersey coast and approximately 97 km from New York, in August 2023. The project includes the installation of up to 157 wind turbine generators, and eight offshore substations. The plans also propose two potential export cable corridors that would make landfall at the US state of New Jersey or New York. BOEM will open a 45-day public comment period for the project proposal, which will run until 2 May, to help identify relevant information for the environmental review process.

Recently, BOEM announced the designation of an offshore wind area with the potential capacity of approximately 32 GW in the Gulf of Maine. At the federal level, the United States targets 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 15 GW of floating wind capacity by 2035. The country also plans to reach 110 GW or more of offshore wind by 2050.